


A Deathly Hallows Unicorn

by Silverhood



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Animagus, Animagus Harry Potter, Bloodletting, Bloodlust, Evil Albus Dumbledore, F/F, F/M, Familiars, Good Tom Riddle, Incest, Light BDSM, M/M, Master of Death (Harry Potter), Mates, Multi, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Nudity, OOC Adult Potter, Old Gods, Polyamorous Character, Possession, Seer Luna Lovegood, Sex, Son of Death and Life (Harry Potter), Teacher Tom Riddle, Top Harry Potter, Young Harry Potter, alternate storyline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:42:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 14
Words: 60,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27292888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverhood/pseuds/Silverhood
Summary: Harry refuses to let Snape die; something in him just won’t let him watch him die. Something in him whispers, not another, and on a split decision Harry reveals himself, firing a spell at Nigini before she can strike Severus. The room explodes into a patchwork of spells and Harry is suddenly hit by one, the last thing he sees is Severus leaning over him.Harry is transported back into another world when Lady Magic takes pity on him. She decides to place him back into a life he once had, hoping that he’ll be able to save this world before it turns sour just like his previous one. With the extra knowledge and power of this life he, Harry gains the confidence he needs to beat back the evils of this world.
Relationships: Albus Dumbledore/Gellert Grindelwald, Ambrosius LeFay/Severus Snape/Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy/Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter/Fred Weasley/George Weasley, Harry Potter/Severus Snape, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Minerva McGonagall/Tom Riddle, Neville Longbottom/Luna Lovegood, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 123
Kudos: 467





	1. Dark Horse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry finds himself in another world, one that turn his own ideas of what right and wrong is on it's head. And in a completely new body to boot. Feeling pressure from Lady Magic, he decides to take up residence in Hogwarts as the new Head Master.  
> ***  
> "Unicorn". Old French, "unicorne". Latin, "unicornis". Literally, one horned: "unus", one, and "cornu", a horn. A fabulous animal resembling a horse with one horn. Visible only to those who search and trust, and generally mistaken for a white mare!" -The Last Unicorn

Harry's last memories played in his mind. Ron and Hermione were yelling as he burst out from under the cloak, but he couldn't let Nagini kill Snape. Something told him that he had to save him, no matter what he'd done, something about him told Harry to step in. The room exploded as spells fired off, and the last thing he'd seen was Snape laying there, half leaned over him. He smiled slightly. He knew they‘d be okay, he was sure he'd hit Voldemort and Nagini. They had to be dead, he told himself as he closed his eyes and let the darkness enveloped him. 

***

“Sweet child, you’ve died so soon before your time,” the feminine voice sighed, “You are brave, giving up your life for those around you. Even in death you are far more worried about yourself than them. I would like to give you another try at life, in a world that you’ll be able to do far more to change. What do you say?”

Harry blinked in the darkness, looking around for the voice that was speaking to him. He felt like he was floating in space. 

“Since you’re of the Peverell line, death has offered to take you, but this will be your only chance before resting, what do you say?”

Harry licked his lips, spinning his arms around him in the dark as he tried to sit up, only to feel like he was summersaulting. He finally stopped trying, letting out a sigh. “Will I get a family this time?” he asked.

“Hmm, in a way you already had one, but yes. I’ll make sure you have a family, but it will be your job to bring them together. And know, there will still be many obstacles, and just as much danger. Your name will be Ambrosius LeFay from here forward, use the name well descendant of the Morrigan; descendant of death.”

Harry tried to ask what she meant when he felt a sucking sensation at his stomach, eyes tightly closed as he tumbled through the darkness. When he hit the ground he felt heavy, even his eyes felt heavy as he lifted his head.

 _‘What? Where am I?’_ he asked himself as he lifted his head. It was hard to move and he felt weighed down; maybe he was sick? He gave a bit of a cough, the smell of dirt and grass filling his nostrils. Glancing around it seemed that he was partly buried in twigs and leaves, almost like the trees around him tried to grow over him. Giving a good pull he managed to separate himself from the branches and stood. Yet, when he stepped forward it felt weird, it was slow, and he felt like he had extra appendages. He gave another rough cough before looking around, and as he did he started to recognize the place. He had to be in the Forbidden Forest near Hogwarts.   
  
He shook the rest of the twigs off himself, taking note of how off he felt. He must be injured and sick.

Tilting his head back he looked up at the stars between the trees, taking note of their position so he could find his way back to the castle. Turning he started to make his way through the trees carefully sliding down a few inclines. His feet felt like lumps of lead, and his head kept hanging, but even then it surprisingly didn't hurt his neck. The closer he got to Hogwarts the more relaxed he became till he started hearing voices. Harry stepped closer to the trees then, using them they started heading his way.

“Malfoy, I know Hagrid wants us to find this creature to help it, but shouldn’t he really have sent a teacher out to do this? Not use it as a detention task?” came a voice from below Harry. 

Harry recognized that voice, wasn’t-wasn’t it his?

Curious he moved closer, still using the trees as cover as he drew closer. Now he could see them, and while it was interesting to see and reminded him of what happened when Sirius got out of prison, he was also cautious. It could be a trap for all he knew. Though, he could also spot Fang walking along with them.

“If you ask me, Hagrid’s and oaf. But yes, I agree. I don’t feel like this is safe, especially since Snape said the Forest was forbidden for a reason. What, Harry, what is that up there?” Malfoy asked, nudging the other boy.

Harry followed, keeping a good distance from them as the two children rushed ahead, stopping in their tracks when Fang started to growl. He remembered this moment well and he started to stiffen, he wished he had his wand with him, it would be easy to kill Voldemort here and now before he could do anything else. Then all he’d have to do was go out and smash all the horxruxes before he had a chance to come back again.

He could see the children approach the rooty area he remembered from his nightmares, then a scream as Draco noticed the slumped humanoid over the dead unicorn. “Run Draco, go get Hagrid and the other’s I’ll hold it off!” Harry shouted. Draco squealed and then turned on his heel, taking the lamp with him as he ran, shouting for Hagrid. 

Harry could feel his heart slamming in his chest as he watched the younger version of himself face off against this thing. Fang had stayed this time, which was a small relief but as the phantom drew closer to child Harry, all he could do was bark.

 _‘Come on, come on. Where is Firenze?’_ Harry wondered to himself as he remembered the centaur that saved him. He watched as his child self fell over, fear written over his face as he held his wand pointing at the monster. At this rate, he’d die.

 _‘Fuck it!’_ Harry screamed at himself as he leaped down the ridge he was on, flailing his arms out in front of him and trying to scare off the Voldemort phantom. To his surprise it worked and the phantom let out a long yowl, scurrying back. Harry did it again, using his best threatening stance as he could, finally chasing it away. He stood there, glaring around for a moment to make sure it was really gone before turning around to address his younger self, but when he tried to talk, nothing came out but a few airy grunts. 

“What ARE you?!” his younger self asked, slowly getting to his feet and dusting himself off.

What am I? Harry was taken aback at the question, confused he looked around till he saw it. Out of the corner of his eyes he caught his reflection glinting off a pool of unicorn blood. It shocked him and he froze for a moment before looking back over at his younger self that was taking a tentative step towards him, arm outstretched. Harry lowered his head slightly, he’d have to try and see if he could get Hagrid to help him.


	2. Dark Horse Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry comes face to face with his younger self, too surprised by current events to really think. When Hagrid arrives, he's a bit perturbed by the way he reacts to his current form. He's starting to think this whole new life thing isn't going to be quite as great as he thought it was going to be.

Harry kept his wand pointed at the monster that loomed in front of him, glad that he told Draco to run for help. He felt a rush of courage as he realized Fang had stayed at his side; apparently he wasn’t as much of a coward as Hagrid had made him out to be earlier. The creature continued forward much to Harry’s displeasure. He wasn’t sure what spell to fire at it and the closer it got the more fear washed over him. Stepping back to put more distance between them he tripped, falling on his ass. Fang whined, trying to bark louder but it didn’t seem to do anything to the phantom shade in front of them.

 _‘Its okay Fang, I know you tried your best. Please, Lady magic if you’re there, help me. Just this once,’_ Harry prayed as he closed his eyes tight. A feral scream interrupted his thoughts as something jumped between him and the phantom, rearing up on its hind legs and expanding its wings to shield Harry. Fear showered over him as Fang tucked tail and ran, crying as he left.

 _‘Great, now I’m going to be eaten by something even worse!’_ Harry thought as he watched the creature continue shrieking at the phantom. He watched it rear again, banishing its wings and front feet like deadly weapons. Soon everything settled, and as the creature turned around Harry was hit with a heavy sense of awe and dread.

“What ARE you?” he wondered aloud.

The creature in front of him was massive. It looked a lot like the unicorn that laid dead behind it but it’s coat was black and thinning, pulling taut over a thick muscular yet boney body. It didn’t look like it had an inch of fat on it. Its face, while graceful, was gaunt; silvery dead eyes staring, what felt like, straight into his soul. It shifted its weight from foot to foot, seeming disturbed by Harry’s words. The moon light caught on the creature's pair of massive leathery wings and dark horn stretching up to the sky. What really held his attention was the dark thick mane and tail, broken up by just a few hairs of striking gold that almost seemed to glow. 

Harry slowly got to his feet and dusted himself off. Hagrid could tell him what it was when he got here, for right now it didn’t seem like it was a threat as it just stood there; glancing around the area before turning its attention back to Harry. It lowered its head and made a bit of a grunting noise that startled Harry but then continued to just stand there. Waiting.

Tentatively he took a step towards it and reached his hand out, slowly, keeping a sharp eye on its golden talon like cloven hooves and sharp beak-like mouth. He relaxed slightly when the creature let out a sigh and lowered its head more, reaching out it’s nose and offering a light nicker. Slowly Harry took another step closer till his hand came into contact with thin cool skin. He’d expected it to be warm but then when he finally made that first touch it was eerily cold. 

“Harry! Harry get away from that!” Hagrid shouted as he came around the corner with his wand drawn. Harry turned around quickly.

“Wait, it’s okay, it saved me,” Harry said quickly, spreading his arms out to shield the monstrosity behind him. The beast behind him grunted again, and Harry had the feeling it may be able to understand what he was saying.

Hagrid seemed to relax a little but he still held his wand out, “Harry step aside, even if it saved you it could lash out at any point if you aren’t paying attention. Don't you remember anything from our introductory classes?” Hagrid said roughly, motioning for Harry to come over to him. Harry did, reluctantly and glanced back as it started to follow him. 

Hagrid cleared his throat roughly and raised his wand higher when the creature took a step towards them, causing the creature to stop in its tracks. Once Harry joined Hagrid he lowered his wand a tad, eyes never leaving the creature in front of them. 

“What is it Professor?” Harry asked after checking behind Hagrid and seeing the rest of the group.

“That Harry, Hermione, Draco, and Neville, is something rare indeed,” he said in a sad tone, “I’ve heard rumors of their existence but I never thought I’d see one here. Most refer to them as Dark Unicorns. Unicorns corrupted by dark magic by exposing them to negative emotions, but those are just tales told by people that don’t know any better. In reality they are the spawn of a male Thestral and a female Unicorn. As they are natural enemies, being the Thestral is one of the few creatures that can catch and kill a Unicorn without consequence, it's a highly unnatural pairing,” Hagrid explained, frowning as he pocketed his wand, wrapping an arm around Harry.

“What’s a Thestral?” Harry asked when he noticed the sad and worried look on Hagrid’s face. 

Hagrid sniffed, smacking his lips as he patted Harry’s shoulder, “Thestrals are a winged horse species; cunning predators that prey on many other magical creatures. Some say they are death omens, but in reality, only those that have come into contact with death and understand it can see them. Unlike Unicorns they live in herds, the carriages are actually pulled by them.”

“What? But there’s nothing there! It's supposed to be drawn by itself,” Hermione butted in.

“Dimwit, didn’t you hear him. Normal people can’t see them!” Draco growled. Hermoine grumbled and crossed her arms over her chest.

“What if that's true, then how could this guy exist?” Harry asked as the creature continued to stand there, staring at them. Its spiky ears seeming to be intently listening to them. 

“It would be a miracle of sorts, and a very sad one at that. This poor boy, he has to be the only one of his kind, living a cursed life somewhere between death and life,” Hagrid explained quietly. He took a step toward the creature, wand raising.

“What, Hagrid, what are you doing?” Harry asked, grabbing Hagrid’s robe to try and stop him.

“Don’t worry Harry, I’m just checking it over. If the sparse rumors are true, these big boys are extremely frail, and almost always sickly. I’m gonna see if there isn’t anything I can do to help it since it saved you boys,” Hagrid said. Before he could get close, however, it took a few quick steps back and ran back up the ridge it had jumped down from. Leaving the rest of them to watch as the boney creature disappeared into the forest.

“Come on kids, I need to get this information back to Minerva. She needs to know that we have a new resident that's gonna need quite a bit of special treatment if we’re gonna keep him healthy,” Hagrid said as he ushered the boys back towards the castle. 

“You mean Professor McGonagall?” Neville asked.

Hagrid nodded, “Yes, now let's get going before we run into anything else.”

***

Harry felt ragged after saving his younger self. While the information he’d gained during the event was useful, he still couldn’t believe that he wasn’t human anymore. Even now, he felt human, but as he walked he really started to notice how his muscles moved, and the heavy set of wings that now laid across his back. He took a deep breath, looking up at the sky again. He knew there was a small lake in here somewhere, he just needed to find it. Sighing, he closed his eyes and stopped, hanging his head lower. He was starving. Taking a deep breath as he lifted his head, deciding to keep going, that's when he caught a scent. It smelled fresh, clean and cool.

 _‘That's right, I don’t have a human nose, I should be able to smell out the water!’_ He told himself excitedly, sniffing in deeply. The scent became a bit stronger and he followed it down a slope, moments later finally seeing the water come into the view. He jogged over to it, dropping his head and mouth down into the water and gathered large gulps into his mouth. Gods, he was so thirsty. Once he had his fill he stood back up, stretching out his body as he looked over both his sides. Slowly he stretched out his new wings, testing them out as he tried to figure out how to operate the muscle groups, being unfamiliar with this body. 

_‘Now all I have to worry about it is food, but what do I eat?’_ he asked himself, glancing around the glaive before looking back up at the sky. _‘I guess I could test out flying, I might be able to spot the castle,_ ’ he thought before looking down at his reflection in the water. He could definitely see the Thestral attributes now, but he was curious. He’d never heard of cross breed offspring either. He had flashes of memory of spinning in the darkness, something about death taking pity on him. 

He snorted to himself, if that was the truth, Lady Magic and Death really couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate form. The real question was if he could return to a human form, and if he could, where would he go from there?

Harry decided on finding a place to rest rather than his ideas from earlier. It was late and he was tired. Plus he didn’t know if that piece of shit Voldemort would come back for him since he’d interrupted his chance to kill his younger self. Finally he decided on a soft looking spot in a rather large tree hollow, settling down and curling up with his wings wrapping around him. Sighing, he rested his head on the ground, eyes closing slowly. While he was glad he wasn’t dead, he really missed his friends. He missed everyone, wondering if they all turned out okay after the explosion.

***

Harry woke the next morning feeling rather refreshed, but his stomach grumbled loudly. Grunting he got to his feet, shaking out his body as he reached out his hooves in front of him and stretched. He looked up at the sky, happy to see the sun streaming what it could through the leaves. It would seem that if he wanted food, he’d have to look for it, and the best way he could think of would be to check from the air. That way he could also get his bearings. _‘Okay, let's try this flying thing. Then the next thing on the list will be food, followed by trying to find a way to turn back into a human._ ’ He told himself. 

Harry headed back to the glaive, since the small lake was pretty open it should be the best place for him to practice lift off. Picking a spot wasn’t too hard as there was a slight incline from one side of the shore to the other, enough room that he could get a running start up the incline and try to catch enough air at the top to lift off. At least he hopped so. 

Taking a deep breath in he stood at the bottom of the incline, eyes focused on the sky before he closed them, trying to picture in his mind the times he’d seen Buckbeak, the Abraxx Flying horses, and the Thestrals take off. He tried to remember what it felt like to be on his broom and in the sky, what it felt like riding Buckbeak. Giving a half rear he started his gallop uphill, wings starting to stretch out to his sides, giving a big thrust downward as he leaped at the highest point. 

He didn’t know he’c closed his eyes till he opened them again, only to find himself in the air, wings pumping madly as they stroked the air underneath him. A wicked grin formed on his horse-like bird face as he twisted his way up and over the tops of the trees. He could feel the wind against his skin and through his mane, oh it felt so good to fly again!

He let out a joyous shout, a trumpetting bellow leaving his chest that echoed over the trees. He was a bit startled by the sound he made but as the joy of flying enveloped he did it again, and again.

He hadn’t felt this happy in a long time. Flying higher he could feel the air around him start to become humid, clinging to skin. He guessed he was close to the cloud layer. _‘This should be high enough to see,’_ he told himself as he tilted his wings to slow himself, coming to a stop. Hopefully his wings could last long enough to keep him in the same spot. He remembered from Hagrid’s lessons that large animals like himself were gliders, using air currents rather than the beat of their wings to keep them a lauft. Thankfully the castle was pretty easy to spot from here, surprised that he wasn’t all that far from it. He had to find someone to help him. 

Then he remembered the way Hagrid had reacted to him. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to go find someone. Hagrid was Hagrid, and even with his open and trusting nature towards creatures he’d been cautious of Harry’s ‘Dark Unicorn’ form. He also felt like Hagrid had been a bit untruthful with all he’d told the kids, which was why he decided to take off when Hagrid started to approach him. 

Harry promised himself that he would look more into what he was later, right now his stomach was growling again. This time much louder. Inhaling he looked down at the tree tops, trying to figure out where to go as he felt his wings starting to tire of holding him in one spot. _‘What do I even eat? Thestral’s are predators, and Unicorns are herbivores, so what does that make me?’_ he wondered. Omnivore maybe?

He was about to head back down to the tiny lake below him, but his ears twitched as he caught just the smallest sound coming from the trees below him. It was closer to Hogwarts than he liked, but it almost sounded like someone singing. Curious he decided to take a look, lowering his head and tucking his wings as he took a nose dive towards the ground, shifting his wings just slightly to catch some air when he accelerated a little too fast. As he popped through the trees he realized he was in for a rocky landing, his wings stretching out as much as possible as he landed, faltering slightly. There was a loud crack as he hit a branch and tumbled, moss and leaves and sticks going with him as he rolled. He grumbled as he finally came to a sliding stop on his butt, wheezing slightly and shaking out the leaves and twigs before finally standing.

“Who’s there?!” someone shouted. Harry froze, did someone see his embarrassing landing?”

“I know you’re there, come on out! You can’t pretend after all that noise.”

Harry gulped, but didn’t see anyone so he cautiously made his way towards the voice. Up ahead there was a large tree that had fallen, and what looked like a small open area filled with mushrooms. He stepped closer, leaning his head slightly around a tree and then winced when a twig cracked under his talons. _‘How do the Thestrals get around without making so much noise!’_ he berated himself.

“Aha! Now I definitely know you’re there! Well come out here from behind that tree! I will count to three before I blast that tree!” the voice shouted.

Harry groaned, he knew something about magical resistances with some magical creatures but he wasn’t sure what that meant for him, and he’d honestly rather not be hit by any spells while feeling this tired and hungry. Slowly he stepped out from behind the tree, stepping into the low light and into the mushroom field. Harry heard a sharp intake of breath as he did, his body tensing when he remembered the way Hagrid had reacted to his presence. Yet, when he finally laid eyes on the wizard, drawn wand or not, he couldn’t help but relax a little. The wizard standing there was none other than Severus Snape.


	3. Dark Horse Part III

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry has a rough, but strangely warming moment with Snape before he is rudely interrupted by Hagrid and Minerva, and they don't seem all too pleased to see him. With what little knowledge Harry's gained from the experience, but a fullish belly, he goes off to look for a spot to check off the next item on his list. Only to find the spot that he'd picked out is actually home to a sweet, but insane, little house-elf.

Snape was happy to finally have some free time on his hands. Though, he felt bad for Minerva. She had to take on the weight of everything as the Substitute Headmaster since Charles' death. It had to be hard to lose one of her closest friends. Especially with everything going on in the world with word that Grindewald’s followers were becoming active again. Even imprisoned in his fortress he still somehow had connections to the outside world. Now with Charles' death it was hard to think about anyone that could take his place and stand up to the two Dark Lords. He wished Albus Dumbledore would have lived, if he did then perhaps they wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with. 

He pulled himself out of his thoughts when he stepped into the mushroom grove he’d come looking for. He’d run low on some potion ingredients and decided this was the best time to gather them before he’d be stuck at the school helping Minerva interview the applicants for the Headmaster. Of course the Board had a say but the real one to get past was Minerva. He’d hate to be on that end of her intensive questioning.

Severus started to hum to himself quietly as he gathered ingredients, nodding to the tune of his little childhood rhyme he remembered. He muttered it aloud, slowly getting louder as he relaxed into his current task. It was a good thirty or so minutes when spotted the first of the forest’s little creatures, smiling at it as it seemed to enjoy his singing. Every time he came out here he could expect one of two little rascals to visit him. They really did seem to enjoy his voice and Severus didn’t question it. This was his time to relax and drain away his worries. 

That was until he heard a loud crash that brought him sharply out of his happy mood. He spun on his heel to face the noise, wand drawn. The little forest squirrels that had come out freezing in their spots, noses twitching. 

“Who’s there?!” Severus shouted out into the woods, his eyes scanning the trees around him quickly, “I know you’re there, come on out! You can’t pretend after all that noise.” He stood there in silence, wand at the ready as he waited for whoever or whatever it was to show itself. He wasn’t about to let anyone catch him un aware, especially after what happened with Charles. Minutes past and Severus was beginning to think it may have been just a tree falling as he noticed the squirrels had started moving again. They were still alert but they weren’t frozen to the spot anymore. One even seemed to be as daring as to start adventuring towards where the noise came from. That was until a twig snapped behind a tree and the squirrel booked it back behind Severus. He also made out what he thought was the end of someone’s wand sticking out from the tree line.

“Aha! Now I definitely know you’re there! Well come out here from behind that tree! I will count to three before I blast that tree!” he shouted, raising his wand a bit higher.

The wind picked up, caring his hair into his face just as the creature stepped out from behind the tree, head low and dead eyes locked with the potions master. Snape suddenly felt sick, his back tingling as all his hair stood up on end, a sinking deep fear forming in his stomach as the creature finished stepping out into the open.

The squirrels behind him immediately started alarm calling, running circles before disappearing back into the trees. Snape could feel the panic welling up in his chest as he stepped backwards, stopping himself as he remembered his lessons on magical creatures. Unless he knew for sure what it was he shouldn’t show any weakness. It could trigger an attack. 

He tried to focus on something else as it leaned down, sniffing the grass slowly and snorting at him. Severus froze as it took a step towards him.

“No!” Severus shouted, more out of fear rather than thinking it would stop the creature from approaching. His wand hand shook a little as he tried not to picture the worst outcome of this experience. 

***

Harry paused mid step when Severus yelled at him. It startled him, causing him to step back. He’d never seen the Professor this scared before, well actually, he flashed back to the moment Severus had saved them from Professor Lupin. He looked pretty terrified then too. Harry had to think about this, while he hadn’t wanted to meet anyone else out here, this may have been the best outcome. Though, he had to admit McGonagall would have been a better person to run into with his current set of goals. 

He pulled himself out of his thoughts as he watched the professor continue to study him, Harry could tell Severus was afraid, to the shake of his wand hand and the awful smell he was giving off. How could he show that he wasn’t a threat, so far it seemed like Snape didn’t know what he was exactly or he was sure Snape would have fired off some kind of spell already to try to drive him off. Knowing Severus he was probably trying to plan out which spells would work on him based off his appearance alone. To be honest Harry was curious about what spells would work on him too but he didn’t want to risk it. 

That was when his stomach growled loudly again and Harry couldn’t help but glance at his stomach. Honestly, he was starting to feel a bit faint, he hadn’t eaten anything since he’d shown up here, and he didn’t know how long it had been since this body had any food either since he’d pulled it out of a bunch of tangled tree roots. He could only guess that it may have been years based on how thick the roots were.

Severus on the other hand was too focused on the dead look the creature had to be paying attention to much else, that was until he heard a loud gurgling noise come from what he could only guess was the creature's stomach. Great, the thing was hungry and he didn’t know what he could use to defend himself. Spells and magical creatures didn’t necessarily mix well unless you knew the exact ones to use. 

Severus pulled himself sharply out of his thoughts when the animal started to move again, swaying slightly before it started to collapse with a loud grunt, its chin then resting on the ground as it let out a long sigh. He was surprised, taking a step closer till he realized the animal was breathing raggedly. Putting aside his fear he started making his way over, wand still slightly raised till he drew close enough to make out the finer details. 

The poor thing was starving, Snape realized once he was a good five feet away from it. Gods he wished Minerva or Hagrid were here, they would know what to do for this poor creature. Severus quickly deduced that based off its rather sharp looking beak it must be some kind of predator and dug into his day bag to pull out the lunch he’d packed. He popped it open, drawing the attention of the creature as it weakly looked up at him. 

“Poor thing, here. If you promise not to bite me I’ll give you my leftover steak,” Severus stated as he pulled it out of the container. The creature grunted and Severus took that as some kind of understanding and threw it down next to it. He was startled at just how fast it moved, the beak tearing into the meat without a second thought, vanishing down it’s throat within seconds. Then its eyes met Severus’ gaze again and Sev felt like it was expecting more. 

“All i have left is some fruit, you can’t possibly-” Severus dropped the bag as the creature lunged forward, moving almost too fast to see with the naked eye. He fell back onto his ass, crawling back a few feet as he watched it tear into his lunch sack, shredding it to bits as it finished everything off. Severus gulped, at least the sack wasn’t him.

Harry could barely control his actions, feeling so hungry to the point he would do anything for food. When he heard Severus say that he had even anything left he went for it, tearing away the leathery sack to get at the rest of the lunch. Sadly it didn’t nearly fill him completely but it did stop the pain and the sudden craving to tear something apart. Lifting his head he stretched out his neck, beak clicking loudly as he shook out the tense muscles. He still felt tired, but the weakness he’d felt second before had passed. He turned his attention then back to the professor, starting to feel guilty for eating the man’s lunch, but the terrified look on his face made him feel even worse.

He lowered his head till it was almost touching the ground, letting out his best attempt at an apology in this form that came out in a low nicker. Severus seemed to relax a bit which made Harry feel slightly better about the current situation.

Severus smiled nervously when the creature turned its attention back to him, chirping, almost, at him, “Heh. No harm done, I’d be pretty ravenous too if I was starving too,” he said quietly, gripping his wand a little tighter. He watched it stand there, the two staring at each other for a long moment before it lifted its head sharply, turning its attention to something in the forest as Severus watched it’s ears prick forward. 

That's when the realization of what it was finally hit him. The fear he’d felt earlier crept back in, as well as an overwhelming sense of sadness. “You poor creature,” he murmured, “to think there’s people out there so set on trying to live forever that they’d experiment on two of the most gentle magical creatures that ever existed. You must be in so much pain, it's a wonder you’ve managed to live till adulthood,” he whispered. It was apparently just loud enough for the dark unicorn to hear him as it’s head and gaze turned back to him. Severus flinched as it’s beak snapped at him, wand hand coming up off the ground just a hair before Severus took in a deep breath to calm himself. It hadn’t attacked him yet, and he needed to keep it that way. The calmer he was the more he was sure it wouldn’t see him as a threat.

That was until it started walking towards him and he froze. This was worse than when Sirius tricked him into almost getting bitten by Lupin! Severus closed his eyes tight, ready to feel the sharp beak any moment, only to be startled when he felt it’s warm breath on his face. He opened his eyes slowly, mouth slightly agape as it lowered its head down to his level, its eye next to his face. Severus held his breath as it seemed to study him, tilting it head from side to side before its beak snapped loudly again, causing Severus to flinch again. Severus pulled his head away slightly, already imagining it using its beak to tear off his face. Why was it so close!

No wild creature would just willingly get this close, even out of curiosity. Severus chanced a glance back at the creature as it sniffed him, beak unbelievably close to his chest, his heart was pounding out of control. 

Suddenly its head lifted, looking behind it quickly before its wing opened up wide, and with a massive whoosh of air the dark unicorn was in the air, and Severus could hear someone yelling his name. He was surprised to see Hagrid and McGonagall running towards him, wands drawn.

“Severus! Severus, are you okay?” McGonagall asked worriedly as she finally made it over to him. She could not lose another staff member right now. “Are you hurt?”

Severus shook his head, “Minerva I’m fine. Just a few scrapes. Hagrid what are you doing here?”

“I was telling Ms Minerva here about the dark unicorn here and then she said you’d gone out here alone! We rushed out here to help yea, I’m just glad we got here in time,” Hagrid explained, putting away his wand as he helped Severus stand.

“Time for what?” Severus asked curiously, whipping off the grass and moss from his robes.

“Well from eating ya of course!” Hagrid said loudly, waving his arms.

“Hagrid, you’re one of most calm souls I’ve ever known, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say that something was going to out right eat someone unless it was defending itself,” Severus said pointedly. He couldn’t believe what Hagrid was implying about the beast. 

Minerva patted his arm, “Hagrid’s right Severus. That thing is dangerous, unpredictable. It may have saved Harry last night but-”

“Wait, it saved Harry last night? No wonder it seemed so weak,” Severus interrupted.

“Weak? It was fine when I last saw it,” Hagrid stated.

“Well, it collapsed shortly after it showed up; ate my whole lunch too. Ripped it to shreds actually,” Severus muttered, “It looked like it was starving.”

“That’s not great,” Hagrid said, “Mr. Snape, you and Harry are unbelievably lucky. Any time anyone has gone and created one of these poor beasts they end up going mad and killing everything. You think the Dark Lords are the worst of everything we have going on. This thing is ten times worse than either of those two. Bloody hell, even a dragon seems tame compared to the history on this thing,” Hagrid tried to explain.

Severus looked between them both, they had to be joking. While sure, it put the fear of the gods in him, it didn’t seem too terrible. Hell, it even apparently wanted to be in his lap at the end there.

“Minerva?”

“Hagrid is telling the truth. While I don’t know as much about it, I do know that the last one was created over 200 hundred years ago, and then it was outlawed to ever create another because of how much destruction it ended up bringing. We need to find out where it came from and then turn it over to the ministry to destroy it,” Minerva stated sternly, “We can’t take the chance it will find its way into Hogwarts.”

Severus glanced back at his shredded lunch sack. He understood how worried Minerva and Hagrid were, but he couldn't get past the feeling that they were wrong about something. While he had been terrified of the creature, the look in its glossy dead eyes. No matter how much they continued to tell him about the animal, he still couldn’t see how it could be this thing of destruction they were describing. If anything, it seemed more like it was looking for a place to belong. Like it was lost. Yes, that's what he saw in those dead eyes, someone who was lost and lonely. Terribly lonely.

***

Harry was still working through the events of what just occurred, something about Snape had drawn him in. He just smelled,... smelled strange, he decided. He didn’t want to keep thinking about it too much. Now that he had food in his belly it was a bit easier to think straight, now just to find a quiet place to try and reach his next goal. Severus hadn’t quite helped as much as he was hoping but at least he knew the man wouldn’t out right attack him if he ever showed up again. Though, McGonagall and Hagrid’s reaction to him standing over Severus wasn’t what he was hoping for. He was also curious about what Severus had said. That his current form was the result of experimentation to achieve immortality. It kinda made sense, he muttered to himself.

After hours of gliding on the upper winds flowing down from the mountains Harry finally spotted something promising. It looked like an old abandoned woodcutter’s house from this distance. It must have been built around the same time as Hogwarts. He was surprised it was still standing. Swooping down he made his landing much better this time, only having to trot a few steps to balance himself out when he hit the ground. He glanced around, hoping, since it was so old, it had a lean to of a shabby stable for any animals the woodcutter needed for the winter. He grinned to himself when he spotted it nestled against some large trees. It was getting late again and he was starting to feel rather tired.

Harry made his way into the livestock shelter, glancing around to see if there was anything he could use to make it a bit warmer. To his surprise, he found what looked like some old straw bales. He sniffed at them, glancing around worriedly when he realized they didn't smell too old.

“Ahh, you finally made it.”

Harry spun around, puffing up and unfurling his wings.

A very wrinkled, very old house-elf waved his hands, “Woah, woah. Calm down Ambrosius.”

Harry shook his head, did, did it just call him Ambrosius? 

The old-house elf seemed to read his confusion, and it laughed at him, “Yes I’m talking to you. The Lady said you’d be returning soon but that you’d be stuck in your,” he paused for a moment and looked Harry up and down, “alternate form,” he huffed. His master should remember how dangerous it was to be roaming around as his animagus form. After what happened last time, Bakaby shivered. He didn’t want to remember the pain his master went through. He smiled at his oldest friend, snapping his fingers and the straw filled the floor around Ambrosius.

“There you go Master, all set up. I’ll bring you food soon, I thought you were going to get here yesterday and when you didn’t,” he paused and put a finger to his temple as he laughed, “I forgot.” 

With a soft pop Harry was left by himself again, and while the house-elf seemed to be out of its mind he was so tired that he didn’t mind. The poor thing must have been out here for ages by himself. Letting out the breath he had been holding he let his knees buckle, lowing himself to the ground as he nestled down into the straw. With a yawn he let his eyes shut, some undisturbed sleep would do him good.


	4. Meeting a God and Unpleasant Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little more back ground information, and tidbits of what's happening outside or Harry, Ambrosius', current reach.

Harry woke the next morning to the smell of breakfast, his stomach growling loudly as he slowly pulled his eyes open. Sitting in front of him was a pile of partly cooked steaks, still bloody from what he could tell, and then a side of various fruits. He gagged a little at the sight of the meat, but for some reason, it smelled more delicious than anything he’d eaten before. 

“Hmm, I put together your favorites, Master. The Lady said you’d need a lot of care since you’ve been gone for so long. Said you’d be very confused since you’ve been sleeping for so long too. I can understand though, I’d be heartbroken if they did that to Bakaby’s mates,” the house-elf said as he gestured to the food, then to his own heart.

Harry wasn’t sure what the house-elf was going on about but-

Harry grimaced as a sudden wave of nausea and pain overwhelmed him, a flash of images passing through his head. They seemed like memories, but he didn’t know where he would have seen such destruction from. Slowly it passed and he was able to shake it off. 

He glanced back down at the food, still unsure of its current state before deciding, ‘ _ Fuck it. I’m not human anyways.’ _

With some rather loud clacking he finished up the plates of food rather quickly, and he didn’t mind the taste all too much. If anything it really hit the cravings he’d been having since he’d been placed in this odd world. With a quick snap the plates were banished, leaving just him and the house-elf.

“The Lady said you’d need help again. Said you wouldn’t remember how to return to your body so she asked Bakaby to help. Said yes of course, but,” he paused, studying his Master. Something felt different about his old friend, Lady Magic warned him that his Master had to adjust to being back, but he felt like it was a bit more than that, “I think you’re lonelier now. Can understand, Bakaby’s been lonely since you were gone, and he didn’t have to watch his mates die like you did. Bakaby will try his best to make you happy again!” he said happily, clapping his hands together. “First, The Lady says that you need to reconnect with your body. Since you’ve been on a trip else where you’ll have to find yourself again! Just like when you become your other self. You must think of the man you were.”

_ ‘The man I was huh,’  _ Harry thought to himself. He tried to focus and remember what his reflection in the mirror looked like, but the more he thought about it the more it felt wrong. It was what he remembered but the magic didn’t seem to connect that image with his current body, and the more he thought about it the more he decided that he was correct. After all, his animagus form as Harry Potter had been a stag just like his father. 

Taking a deep breath he tried to think deeper. This body, while it felt familiar; like he’d somehow been here before, perhaps in a dream, it had its distinct differences. Any time he thought about his past as Harry Potter it felt more like he was trying to remember a bad dream, but he also knew that it was real and that it was a part of him. Thinking back, he’d actually had a dream once of flying without any equipment or mount. He’d been floating above the clouds, feeling the air against his face. Maybe, just maybe, his dreams weren’t dreams?

The thought was kinda scary but it made sense. After all, Voldemort was able to use them to trick Harry. Why not have some kind of connection to past lives. 

The more he thought about it, the more the fog seemed to clear in his head till he had a clear picture of someone in his head. He held onto that thought and went with it, slowly he started to feel tingly over his whole body, and a slow smile crept across his lips as he recognized the sensation.

When he opened his eyes Harry looked down at his hands, rotating them as he opened and closed his palms. His skin was a bit darker than he’d imagined, like a light mocho, and he could tell from the freckles littered all over his arms and legs that his face must be covered as well. Smiling wide he slammed his hands down, jumping up quickly and stretching out his arms over his head. Gods it felt good to be in a human body again. 

Harry felt something thud against his side and he looked down at the pile of clothes that had been thrown at him. He felt his face flush as he bent down to grab them. Bakaby was tisking at him as he hurriedly pulled the clothes on, surprised when they were more muggly then he thought they’d be. 

“Bakaby,” Harry stopped, caught off guard by the smoothness and depth in his voice. He cleared his throat and tried again, “Bakaby, I’m. Why are you calling me Ambrosius?” Harry tried to shake the odd sensation of his voice rattling in his chest for once. This whole thing was throwing him for a loop.

“Because that’s your name silly, now come inside. The Lady would like to speak to you?”

“What Lady?” Harry asked, pulling at his sleeves as he hurried after the ancient elf.

“Why Lady Magic of course!”

Harry felt very dizzy suddenly. Lady Magic was here? In the flesh!?

***

Severus was still thinking about the dark unicorn or, after having done some proper research, the Uthareal as he’d seen it referred to in the books he managed to find. He was glad it had a proper name rather than just a dark unicorn, which to him was just too much of a mouthful. Apparently the name had been decided after the last known creation of an Uthareal. Partly so they had a name to ban it under that could be easily distinguished from everything else. He’d informed Minerva and Hagrid, though it seemed Hagrid had already known and just chose to call it a dark unicorn. 

He’d actually come across some really fascinating information in the form of one of the participating wizard’s journals. Severus hated the idea of forcing these two animals to breed, and the process was disgusting, but the advancements they’d made after studying their creation was astonishing. Especially in the development of age-slowing magic and healing! 

But everything good had to come to an end, and based on the last legible entries he could understand where Minerva and Hagrid’s fear had come from. Yet, even then he felt there was something off about the actual time listed between events in the journal. It seemed like a massive amount of time had passed between the animal breaking loose, and its rampage. Even the handwriting changed gradually, congruent with an aging person. 

Severus dropped his quill, now he was thinking too much about it to continue grading papers, he’d already messed up tallying two papers before this. Letting out a long sigh he leaned back in his chair, hearing the crunch and popping of his back as his spine realigned with the help of the seat.

“Morfeel!” Severus called, looking around the classroom for his familiar. There was a rather loud croak as the raven dived down from the rafters, wings and tails flaring as he slowed and landed with a soft thud onto the desk. Severus smiled and lifted his hand to scratch under his friend’s chin, a soft raspy purr rattling from the bird’s body. “Have a nice nap while I was grading papers?” he asked. Morfeel croaked again, his throat feathers puffing up before he started stretching his beak. “Hmm, bad dreams again then.”

Severus stood, giving his wand a wave and a flick to send the papers’ he’d graded into their proper slots. He gave a quick glance over the whole classroom before deciding it was sufficient and headed for the door.

“Come along now, we need to help Minerva with the applicants. I’d rather like some of her tea as well. Tis been a stressful week, for sure,” he said as he held his arm out for his feathered companion. Morfeel let out a slightly louder croak as he took flight and then landed on Severus’ arm. He made his way up to Severus’ shoulder and then nipped at his ear affectionately. 

“Yes, I’m sure she’ll let you and Hazel have some playtime together. That cat is getting rather big though, you should be careful.”

A little croak in response was what he got in return for his expression of worry.

It didn’t take too terribly long for them to get to Minerva’s office. She refused to use the Headmaster’s office when Charles passed, and Severus could understand why. The man had a massive presence in everyone’s hearts. 

He knocked swiftly, his eyes scanning the hall out of habit as the door creaked open.

“Minerva,” he said politely as he stepped inside her office. She smiled at him and motioned for him to take a seat. Snape noted that she looked even more weary since he’d seen her last, if such a thing was possible. “Not finding anyone suitable?” he asked as he noticed the massive pile of discarded applications. A big red DENYED over the top of the last one.

“No, and it bothers me. Especially with all these rumors that the Dark Lords are on the move again. Charles left some big boots to fill, he did such a good job after Dumbledore..” she trailed off, a worried look on her face as she stared down at the current application in front of her distantly.

Severus frowned. “Minerva, maybe I should take over for a bit. You look exhausted,” he suggested as he reached over for an application. He hadn’t even been reading it for a minute before he tossed it to the side with a heavy sigh. 

Minerva waved her hand, “See! Almost all of them have been like this. It’s like they aren’t even trying. None of them so far have any real desire to take the job seriously. Sure they have the qualifications but the way they talk about the position as more of a tool in the political climate rather than for the children. It’s disgusting,” she let out a long sigh and punched the bridge of her nose underneath the glasses. “I don’t know what to do, Severus. We don’t have all that much time before the Board just picks one at random. I fear what will happen if any of these rumors are true and the wizard they place here aren’t enough to keep the children safe.”

“I understand but,” he glances at the piles of denied applicants, “We may not come upon anyone close to those two. They were giants of the time Minerva. Unless something drastic happened we may not find another witch with anywhere near the same level they were. I’ll continue here, you should really go get some rest.”

“You’re right,” Minerva says as she stands, “The house-elves should be here shortly with your tea. If you need anything you know where to find me.” With a slight smirk she turns and in one swift movement is in her animagus form, disappearing behind a wall in which Severus can only expect is one of the secret passageways littered throughout the castle. He took the seat she had been occupying and started to go through the applications with Morfeel commenting something sarcastic about each one.

***

Harry, Ambrosius, followed Bakaby into the hutt, unsure of what awaited him but the elf hadn’t given him a reason to suspect him of anything so far. Other than seeming to be a bit insane, but Harry already chalked that up to loneliness. When they entered the hutt, he wasn’t too surprised to find it slightly bigger inside than it was outside. At this point in his life he’d found it a pretty common experience. Stepping into the dingy yet homey location reminded him a bit of the burrow, less clustered and a bit cleaner but to him it had a similar vibe, making it feel like he’d been here before. In the back of his head a little voice seemed very adamant that he had. 

Bakaby lead him from the front of the door to the kitchen-dining area where a hooded figure waited for them. They were relatively small, child sized which gave Harry pause before he inevitably sat down across from the cloaked figure. 

“I thought you would appreciate a friendly face,” the figure said as they pulled the hood down.

“Lu-” Harry was cut off by a quick shushing motion, the little girls’ eyes darting around the room for a moment before she settled back down.

“What’s going on. One second I’m being an idiot and throwing my life away and the next I’m in a creature's body in the forest, and this house-elf tells me that Lady Magic is waiting for me. And to top it all off, he keeps calling my Ambrosius,” the words spilled from his mouth without a thought. He was frustrated, still a bit tired, and really confused about what was going on.

A small wispy smile appeared over Luna’s lips. “Oh Harry, but I am Lady Magic. I’m just borrowing this seer’s body to explain a few things. I thought it necessary to come in a body that you’d trust. To put you at easy,” she explained as her voice floated around the room softly.

Harry’s hands gripped the side of the table, confusion written across his face clear as day. 

“Bakaby, a calming draught for our special guest please,” she added.

It took only moments for the draught to appear on Harry’s side of the table, a soft pop prompting it’s, and Bakaby’s, arrival. 

“Go ahead, it’s not poisoned I promise.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“You wouldn’t trust your dear friend?”

Harry gritted his teeth, “But you aren’t her. I can’t even trust that you’re really Lady Magic!”

“Hmm, true. But do you really think someone as talented as Luna, even at her current age, would just let any spirit willingly possess her body?”

“How do I know she willingly gave it over?”

That gave the child Luna pause, “You have a point, and I can’t very well leave this body and come back or else this timeline will be ruined.”

“What do you-”

“Shhhh,” she gave him the motion again, her finger pressed to her lips. “Luna can’t know you exist just yet, even with the body you’re in her Seer abilities will see right through it. Though, it's not like the body isn’t yours to begin with,” she paused, seeing the frown an extra confusion forming on his face. She couldn’t help but giggle a little, “How about a deal. I’ll tell you my REAL name, then you’ll be able to summon me at any point in time, or even seal me up in a jar if you so please.”

Harry sat back, his grip on the table loosening. “Seal you away?” he asked curiously.

“Why yes, any being has a very special name that can give special properties to almost any item or action, but it can also be used to control the very life essence of that being as well. Did they not teach you this at Hogwarts?” she asked, her interest peaked. Harry shook his head, and the sigh of disappointment that left her lips almost made Potter feel guilty. “It would seem your timeline was in far worse condition than I thought. It seems that I was right to pull you from it and plop you here before you extinguished.”

Harry wanted to ask more questions, but just how fast this spirit was spitting out information didn’t leave that much of an opening.

“I guess I’ll have to then. My name is ******. Now I hope you’ll know when you can and can’t use it right? After all, I am still a god.”

Harry nodded sharply, eyes slightly wide but he understood it, “Crystal clear, but,” he paused, not was his chance, “Why did you bring me here? It seems like we are back in time but,” Luna, or rather Lady Magic started to laugh.

“Oh, no, no, no. I brought you back to another timeline all together. One I know you can make a far better outcome in. Don’t think it’ll be any easier than the one you came from; it's just that here you’ll have far more opportunities to stop the disasters that destroy your past timeline. Here the events occur differently but the outcome is the same,” she paused, leaning across the table, “the destruction of magical society as a whole.” Her eyes were like glaciers now, hard and cold as she stared into Harry’s gaze. “This is the last chance we have to save our world or what it be destroyed forever, and since you’ve been previously incarnated here it was easy enough to have Death pull a few strings,” she said with a slightly agitated smile.

Harry was nervous, even with the calming draught, this was a lot for his brain to handle and process.

“Now, back to business. From here on out, you will be Ambrosius LeFay, no more of this Harry business. It’s far too confusing, especially since the position I need you in would contradict this timeline if you kept it. That would be very messy and I don’t want to clean up the aftermath. However, since you and your younger self have various differences in this time line it should be safe enough, however, that doesn’t mean you can act as recklessly as you have in your timeline,” she said, giving him the stink eye. “While I understand the circumstances then, you’ve had fair warning this time, think these things through. Hmm, what else..” she put her finger to her lip, glancing at the ceiling.

“How about telling me how I’m supposed to help this whole end of the world thing from occurring when I have nothing to my name,” he suggested, a little too pointedly. She glared at him for a moment before jumping from her seat.

“Very well, but you better learn all you can as best you can by yourself, I can’t very well keep abducting poor Luna here every time you need a hint. First off, you should find the Elderwand before that bastard is able to get it back. Thankfully, during the duel both of them lost their chance at it and it’s been floating around in the Nether between worlds for a while now. To get it you’ll want to visit the goblins, and ask them to retrieve all of your family’s lost items. I would get your inheritance tests out of the way while you’re there as well. The Ambrosius before you was about to do the same before he was thrown by his body by the curse the bloody bastards put him under. If he had, maybe this whole mess could have been avoided,” she said as she teethed on her thumbnail.

Harry thought it was actually kind of cute. 

Her eyes darted back to Harry, “When you have your inheritances done, you may run into some issues, just remember that you are not Harry Potter when you do. I’m sure you will make the appropriate choices when it comes to that. Oh! I almost forgot, Bakaby. He will help you slide into your new routine, as well as become your tutor in everything pureblood related. If I remember correctly your education was highly lacking in your last timeline. Now I must get going, Luna’s father will be furious if he thinks anything happened to his lovely daughter.” She made her way to the door soundlessly, feet making hardly any noise across the floorboards.

“Remember, Ambrosius, no one must find out about you. And I mean no one. If you slip up, this will never work, now, try your best. I believe in you,” she stated, giving him a wave before she disappeared out the door, a quiet pop echoing after her departure. 

Harry turned back to Bakaby, a small but confused smile lingering on his face. “So, the bathroom?” he asked.

Bakaby pointed upwards, “Just up the stairs is the master bath. Bakaby recommends that his master take his time to adjust. Supplies will be up shortly, I’m sure once you do your inheritances everything will get better.”

Harry’s smile widened and he relaxed. The ancient house elf’s assurance that everything would be fine made him feel a bit better. Taking the stairs rather quickly Harry found his way into the master bath, a bit of a wow moment when he realized how big it was. On one side was a bath that could hold at least three people at once, and tucked next to was it a standing shower, near the same size but a bit smaller. A standing mirror hovered next to the wall of the bath, and Harry had to do a double take for a moment to realize it was his reflection he was seeing. The differences shocked him, and he reached up to touch his face to make sure it was real.

Dark mocha skin covered him from head to toe, each inch of it covered in darker freckles. Even his face was full of them, with a darker birthmark like mole just at the corner of his left lip. It didn’t look bad but it was a massive difference then he was used to. Overall his body seemed in decent condition. The skin had some scars littered her and there at random, but nothing was missing. The muscle definition was a bit above average but with no real points that stood out to him. It honestly made him a bit relieved to see the body type was similar enough to his old self that it wouldn’t bug him too much, that was until he realized how tall he was. He was almost a good four inches taller, leaving him guessing he was around 6’1”/6’2”, quite a difference than what he was used to. What ended up being his favorite features was his hair and eyes. While his hair was long enough to come down to his waist, it still contained the same unruly curls. His eyes were a cloudy cool grey, and for a moment Harry would have almost thought he was blind if it had been him looking at this person in the mirror. Yet, he could see so he knew it wasn’t the case. 

It reminded him of the Thestral’s he’d seen with Luna, and based off the current series of events he guessed that his eyes were linked directly to his current animagus form. It gave him a strange sense of comfort that he couldn’t quite explain, but he wouldn’t complain. He’d take what he could get. 

It didn’t take him long to get comfortable in the bath, the bubbles forming around him in tufts. This whole series of events was making his head ring. He tried to put it all into chunks he could really understand, but each time he’d started to panic a bit. The calming draught must already be wearing off. He let out a long sigh and closed his eyes, resting his head on the back of the tub.

“So, from what ****** said, I was displaced here from my timeline, into one I lived in previously as this person, Ambrosius. And I’m supposed to stop a chain of events that will destroy the magical world if I don’t. Sure is a lot to process. Though,” he paused in the midst of his conversation with himself, “I’m more curious about this whole, having been here before as this body. I mean I don’t have any memories as Ambrosius. I hope she brought back the right person and I’m the one she was actually looking for,” he sucked in a deep breath, trying to keep his head on straight thru all of this, “Bakaby!” he hooted loudly.

The house-elf appeared quickly with a loud pop. “What does master require?”

“Bakaby,” he started as he leaned of the side of the bath, “Tell me more about myself. Lady Magic said you could help me.”

“Yes! You are Lord LeFay, or better known as Ambrosius LeFay, the Destroyer. You are an almost direct descendant of Morgana LeFay, as her grandchild so to speak.”

“LeFay?” he was surprised; that last name had been dead for a long while in his timeline, “What do you mean by the title Destroyer?” Harry asked curiously.

“When master lost his mates, because of how he’d come to be, he lost his sanity and destroyed many towns and villages,” Bakaby said, sounding pleased with himself.

Ambrosius felt like throwing up as a sudden flash of images hit him, this time he could see and feel the heat of the flames on his body. He could hear the cries of those around him, and an almost constant painful roar ringing in his ears. He was brought back by hands on his shoulders shaking him rather violently. 

There was a loud clatter as the items that had started floating and bobbing around the room dropped back to the ground. 

“Master, you okay?”

Ambrosius shrugged him off before nodding slowly, he had a massive headache coming on. “I’m fine Bakaby, I just remembered something unpleasant. I apologize. Why don’t you go get some lunch ready for us. I’d like to get some food in us both before we head off to Gringotts.”

Bakaby nodded, patting his master’s arm before apparating away.

Ambrosius, Harry, let out a long sigh, sliding down in the tub till just his nose remained above the water level. Maybe he didn’t want to remember this body’s memories. 


	5. Storm Clouds Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ambrosius visits Gringotts, it takes a while for him to really process and get threw everything.
> 
> Minerva receives a letter that puts her and the rest of the staff on edge.

Ambrosius, or as he had been called before his untimely death Harry Potter, made his way into Gringotts without all that many expectations. What he’d actually received was a massive flood of information and added confusion.

“I’m a what now?” he asked again as he rubbed at his face, and the small stubble goatee he had growing. They had been at this for almost a week now.

“An Uthareal,” the goblin said for what seemed like the thousandth time. At first he’d had a hard time believing that the great Ambrosius had lost his memories but this was just getting ridiculous.

“And that means again.”

The goblin sighed and pulled out a few more rolls of paper and then laid them out on the tea table between them. “You are a creature of both life and death, like a vampire, a son of the cosmos so to say. Half Thestral, a gift from our Lady to Death, and half Unicorn, a gift from Death to our Lady,” the goblin frowned when it seemed like Ambrosius was still lost, “You are a miracle, one that then mastered taking human form!” the goblin growled, frustrated that this person his families had once looked up to was now a stunted halfwit. 

Ambrosius groaned, this was giving him an awful headache. “Okay, I’m not human, I got it,” he finally said as he threw up his hands. The goblin grunted, crossing his arms and finally looking pleased with himself.

“Now, back to what I was trying to outline, you have plenty, plenty of things that need to be taken care of,” the goblin smiled, putting Ambrosius in a state of unease at how pleased the goblin appeared to be with itself, “Now, the last we’d heard from you was a letter asking us to run test on your bloodlines,” he pulled out a heavy looking tomb and let it thud down onto the table as he started to thumb it open, he gave a small greedy looking smile, “Now you,” he said as he jabbed a finger, “are related to almost all of those pompous idiots’ sacred twenty-eight, most closely relating to the Black, Gaunt, Prewett, and Selwyn lines. The closest of those being the Gaunt and Selwyn lines.” He stopped to snicker and turned the next page, “You also, of course, have current hold over your mates’ lines, bless their spirits as all that return to our Lady.”

“My mates?” he asked, curious, Bakaby had said something about having mates as well. 

The goblin across the table from him suddenly looked both horrified, and indescribably despondent.  “Lords and Ladies Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor,” he said, the tones of joy and snickering gone as the goblin’s face took on a deep sorrow, “In losing your memories it seems you have lost more than just yourself. You have my deepest sympathies, but perhaps this is for the best, you did-,” he stopped shortly, cutting himself off.

Ambrosius had all but stopped listening, he’d been married to four different people? Was that even legal now? When he tried to picture them but only got foggy images, and then the pain in his head started again. He lifted a hand to his brow, pressing hard and groaning as he tried to dull the pain. The goblin glanced up for a moment, more worried now than he had been when the same thing occurred earlier. “Are you doing okay?” the goblin asked. 

Ambrosius nodded slowly, letting out a long sigh as the pain faded. It reminded him of the dark mark he’d received from Voldemort, and he wondered if it had something to do with it, only this occurring happening with memories. “Please continue,” he groaned.

The goblin nodded, “On top of those houses you have your own bloodline-.”

“I thought you said I wasn’t human?” he asked, confused.

The goblin nodded, “While you aren’t human so to say, when you gained the ability to take human form you were blood adopted by Morgana Le Fay.”

So that’s how he’d gotten the last name and became a descendant of Morgana’s, that made sense. But wouldn’t Morgana have been born around the same time as Merlin, and didn’t Merlin go to Hogwarts? Oh all this was pickling his brain.

“You seem distressed,” the goblin said as he motioned at the way Ambrosius now pulled at his hair. 

“I’m confused if I was blood adopted by Morgana, wouldn’t I have been born after the head of the houses of Hogwarts?” he asked. 

The goblin started to laugh, “Morgana is ageless, and I’m sure we all know her in one name or another, she is Lady Magic after all. She has many, many names,” the goblin paused and seemed to give Ambrosius a knowing look, “And I’m sure you know her by a very specific name known only to a very sparing few.”

Ambrosius swallowed, “Oh.”

The goblin chuckled and flipped the next page, humming to himself, “I usually do not go over this but because of your bloodlines you have claim to wizengamot seats. These would be; Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor of course, there seats have been dormant for a long time now without any direct claim, then there is Gaunt and Peverell, also dormant, then Potter, Selwyn, and Black that have Proxy’s currently occupying them,” he paused, “It also seems like you have a living descendant, one Harry James Potter, it's probably worth mentioning that he is currently the last living heir for the Potter, Peverell and Black seats.” He licked his lips, turning a few more pages and then becoming vaguely more interested, “Pardon, you have two living descendants. Tom Marvlo Riddle, currently the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. He is also the heir of the Gaunt line, curious as to why he hasn’t claimed it. I must inform his account manager,” he paused to look up at Ambrosius, chuckling when he noticed how hard the wizard seemed to be trying to focus, “I will, of course, give you copies of everything here. First, what do you want to do with the seats, would you like to claim them and their lordships?” he asked.

Ambrosius briefly thought back to what Lady Magic had told them at their earlier meeting. “I’ll take custody of all of them except Gaunt, and the ones Harry is heir to only until he comes of age,” he decided. It really didn’t take him long when he thought about it, though he was surprised to hear that Tom Riddle was a professor at Hogwarts. Maybe Voldemort didn’t exist here, but if he didn’t exist who was it that tried to attack Harry in the very way Voldemort had? More questions without answers.

“Oh, one last thing before we move to dealing with your accounts and land. The last time you messaged us, you wanted a copy of all your masteries. We were able to pull them and make copies that would be recognized by most all the wizarding governments around the world, though it's far too late for what you planned then, it may be of some use now,” the goblin stated as he pulled out four scrolls and set them down. Ambrosius took them and started to unroll them, a vague memory forming of days spent tutoring and being tutored by various teachers as he started to read them one after the other. He was rather pleased with this version of himself, it would seem he was rather talented to have four masteries; one in transfiguration, one in potions, one in ancient runes, and one he didn’t recognize.

“What is an Elemental Magic Mastery?” he asked, puzzled.

The goblin smiled, showing rows of pointed teeth, “That one is very old, and very hard to come by. It isn’t really practiced anymore because it's deemed as dark or wild magic.” it chuckled, “I didn’t know you the last time you walked this plane, but my brethren did, and from the stories told by many of us, you were a force to be reckoned with. This mastery does not surprise me.”

Ambrosius hummed his understanding. “I see, do you have anything that could help with my memories?” he asked.

The goblin shook his head, “No, but I’m sure you would have kept a journal at some point. If only to make sure your finances are in check, or to log important events of your bloodline. Was there anything else?” he asked. 

“Oh, would you be able to retrieve any family items? Any that may have been given to others inappropriately, or have gone missing?” Ambrosius asked.

“Certainly, though, if we are talking about the Peverell items, Harry James Potter has one, the other two are lost, but we can bring them back. The Elderwand will be easy enough but the other two will take time,” he stated.

“Leave the cloak with Harry, it was passed down correctly as others wished, the wand and the stone or what I’m here for, the wand more so than the stone. It seems that the wand had been “found” by someone Lady Magic doesn’t like,” he stated. The goblin’s brows rose, but he didn’t say anything.

“I’ll have it done, now, onto your estates,” he said.

*** 

Minerva was at her desk, flipping through more and more applications for the Headmaster position. While she would have liked to take the position, they needed someone else, someone that could really protect the school. Even with her experience she was nowhere near what the previous headmasters had been. She wasn’t ready to step in shoes that big yet, no matter what Severus and the other teachers said.

She let out a long sigh and turned from her desk, taking her tea and standing by the window to look out on the grounds. It would be winter soon, and they’d needed a headmaster now more than ever. They couldn’t go without a headmaster for the whole year, especially not with Flamel’s stone here. She knew Charles had been trying to keep it safe for the man while he moved countries since there had been whispers of Grindelwald's lackeys moving about, but for the life of her she couldn’t understand why he’d chosen here! She’d argued with him almost all the way up till when he died, and she’d felt horribly for it. Guilt ridden. There was no way she was allowing herself to take up the headmaster’s mantle till she’d laid that guilt to rest.

Hazel, her growing lynx familiar, came over to comfort her after seeing her master so stressed, she rubbed her cheeks along her mistress’ ankles before hopping up onto her cat tree beside the window. She let out a low hoarse meow, reaching out her paw and resting it on her witch’s nose.

“I know Hazel. But I-,” Minerva stopped and took a deep breath, “If I can’t settle on one by this weeks’ end I’ll talk to the board again. If they really feel it should be me, then I’ll have to accept. I won’t let someone I don’t trust into that position.” Hazel purred and then jumped down from her post, her stubby tail flicking rapidly for a moment. Minerva’s brows rose, “What is it?” 

Not a moment after, the window she had been standing by burst open and in flew a massive bird, its wings almost too big to clear the window. It hovered in the air for a moment, its long tail feathers almost touching the ground before it chose to land and perch on one of Hazel’s wooden scratching posts. Attached to its rather long legs was a large scroll, and Minerva was a bit nervous to take it. Its blue-grey, almost white, feathers seemed to smolder like a phoenix’s as she stared at it, and it continued to stare right back at her. Hazel was already between her master and the massive bird, a low growl emanating from her throat until the bird croaked at her. When it did Hazel perked up, letting out a raspy meow of her own before walking up to the birds perch and sniffing at its tail feathers that now wound around the scratching post.

“A Caladrius, really?” Minerva commented in response to Hazel’s meow. “I honestly thought they were extinct, Phoenixs are rare already, I honestly thought that their predatory counterpart would have been all but hunted down by now,” the birds large hooked beak snapped at her, making its impatience known, “Oh, I’m sorry, you had something for me,” Minerva stepped forward, putting on her brave face as she tried to not focus on the massive talons the bird carried. She was cautious to make sure she didn’t touch a single feather, if you thought a Phoenix feathers burned when you touched the wrong ones, a Caladrius (if the stories were true) would be ten times that. They not only had healing abilities but were even said to be able to pull diseases from patients and incinerate the disease when it came into contact with them.

After pulling the scroll loose she glanced around the room, she was sure it must be hungry after it’s flight just like any other bird, but all she had was owl treats.

“I apologize, I don’t have anything fitting enough to give you,” she told the bird, it seemed to understand and lowered its head a bit, respectively before it unfolded its wings and lifted from the perch. Scaring poor Hazel in the process before it left out the same window it had come in from, the window closing behind it with a soft thud. Minerva could still feel the warmth it had left in the room from it’s short stay. 

Shaking herself out of her thoughts she glanced back down at the scroll, her face wrinkling in curiosity as she whipped a finger over the wax seal. She didn’t think she recognized the signet, though it did remind her a little of the Hogwarts seal she used when writing letters to families. At the top of the seal where the initials A.LF. more things that she didn’t recognize. She flipped it over just to make sure, and there it was, her name and the Hogwarts address. Sighing she went to her desk and sat down, using her letter opener to gently pry the scroll open, she didn’t want to ruin the seal in case Cutherbert or Filius could identify the signet. Though, she’d probably know soon enough who was messaging her in a moment. She still wanted to know more about who this mysterious writer was.

As she unfurled the scroll and placed a weight on it to keep it from rolling, she found that it was more than just one large scroll. They obviously had been charmed as they laid flat after unrolling, and Minerva was a bit shocked at what she discovered. “It’s an application as Headmaster,” she said softly. Hazel’s ears pricked and she leapt up into the desk, looking down at the papers her master now had in front of her. “I haven’t had anyone put this much effort into their applications before now, Hazel, we may have just found the wizard we’ve been hoping for,” she said with a smile. The writing was neat, delicately scrawled with long lopes and a significant amount of precision. She honestly found herself becoming a bit jealous.

Licking her lips she started to read aloud, “To Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, and those it may concern; it has come to my attention that you currently have the Headmaster position at Hogwarts unfilled, and would like to offer my services. I believe I’m fully, if not overqualified for the position, and as I have been previously employed by Hogwarts herself for a long while before my retirement it would seem fate herself is calling me to return. I have included copies of my Masteries as well as my former involvement in the Founding of Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please, don’t hesitate to call on me for aid, as I also plan on visiting Hogwarts soon. After all, it is currently sitting on land that I leased out to the founders so many years ago. Yours Sincerely, Ambrosius M. Le Fay.” Minerva felt her heart drop into her stomach and the blood drain from her face. She felt sick, this had to be a very poorly planned joke! “This can’t be real,” Minerva said, her mouth suddenly going dry. Hazel looked at her worriedly and let out a low purr before scooting the paper this mysterious man had included into Minerva’s field of view. She gave them a glance and felt even more ill than she had before. There, on the bottom of each Mastery, each paper of previous employment, and the dead for the land Hogwarts sat on was the Gringotts and ICW seals. 

Severus. She had to firecall Severus, if anyone knew anything it would be that man, and if he didn’t know anything then she’d have to call a staff meeting. She stood shakily from her desk and headed over to the fireplace, throwing in a bit of powder before saying, “Severus Snape’s Quarters please.” 

“Minerva, you look awful, what happened?” Severus asked through the firecall, setting down his tea.

“I’ll go over it more in detail in a moment, but do you know anything about a wizard named Ambrosius Le Fay? He would have had to be alive around the same time as the Founders,” she asked, she honestly hoped she wouldn’t get an answer, she was still having a hard time believing that anything she’d just read was real. She watched as Severus seemed to almost choke on his tea.

Severus, back in his quarters inhaled sharply, inhaling his own tea and starting to cough horribly as he glanced at the piles of books he’d just been going through not four hours earlier. Why would she have come by that name? Finally he collected himself and cleared his throat, “Did you say Ambrosius Le Fay?” he asked for clarification.

Based on Severus’ reaction Minerva had a sinking feeling it wasn’t good. She nodded, “Yes.”

Severus sighed through the fire, “He’s a myth. A Fairytale even to us wizards, much like Merlin was for Muggles,” he stated.

“But Merlin was real,” Minerva replied, straining her voice.

Severus scratched at his brow, “He supposedly was the one that helped the founders fund Hogwarts, some say he was the missing element that kept the four of them together, a ‘companion’ or a lover to all or just a few of them. The actual evidence we have of his existence is minute. He also, apparently, had a possible role in the last known creation of an Uthareal, or what Hagrid calls a Dark Unicorn. Though I haven’t found any writings from the era that even include a mention of his name. Not in any of the wizarding journals I’ve found concerning the creation of such a creature,” he paused when he saw Minerva’s face fall, “Why?” he asked.

Minerva shook, “I think it’s better if you come over, I have something to show you, something we should discuss with the other staff.”

Severus nodded, “Of course, just give me a moment and I’ll be right over.”


	6. Storm Clouds Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minerva and Snape are at their wits end, with who ever this man claims to be.
> 
> Ambrosius finally comes back to the place he really feels is home.

Severus sat in a high chair opposite from Minerva at her desk. He was looking at the papers, and shaking his head. He understood why Minerva looked so worried now, if this all was true this could be bad. If this man didn’t get what he wanted he could close the whole school down, then where would the students go? Especially the muggle-borns! With what was going on in the world right now, this was the safest place for them. 

“This man would have to be over a thousand years old Minerva. I’m sorry but this is  **very** hard to believe,” Severus said as he set the papers down in his lap. The Elemental Magics mastery caught his attention again for the fourth time now, he’d heard of the old magic in passing but never thought it actually existed. Another lost branch of magic to add the pile he supposed.

“I feel the same, but each paper has both the Gringotts and ICW seals. I even tested the paper, these aren’t fakes. And it wouldn’t be unheard of for a Wizard to live so long, look at Flamel, and Barry Winkle! He doesn’t even have a stone and he’s older than Flamel,” she stopped, glancing at the papers spread over her desk again before looking back at Severus, “What if this man is really who he says he is.”

Severus shrugged, placing the papers he’d had in his lap back on the desk, “Then there is only so much we can do. Even if we refuse to hire him, the board might just choose to overrule us. Plus there isn’t much we can do if he really owns the land Hogwarts is sitting on, and the surrounding area.”

“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” Minerva said, picturing a crotchety old man walking into Hogwarts, possibly near death, she just could imagine anyone that old that would be healthy enough to serve Hogwarts to the fullest. Not unless they were some kind of immortal. “Severus, you don’t think he could be a vampire? The board wouldn’t employ something so dreadful,” she said.

Severus felt his own stomach churn, “They might not have a choice Minerva. Yes they are seen as dark creatures here in Britain but these are ICW seals. This paper work could very well predate the current government we have. He’d have more sway.” Severus closed his eyes for a moment, collecting his thoughts, “You said he planned to visit Hogwarts, did it give us a date?” he asked.

Minerva shook her head, “No, but I’m sure he’ll send another note along with that magical bird. Did I mention his ‘owl’ was a bloody Caladrius! A Caladrius, Severus! That branch of phoenix-like species is supposed to be extinct! I checked.” She was shaking with both fear and rage, oh how she wished Charles was here. 

“The most we can do is take this to the rest of the staff, see what they say, and wait for this man’s arrival,” Severus paused, “You were having a hard time picking out a replacement Minerva. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise.”

Minerva could only hope. With that she pulled out a coin, whispering into it and causing it to glow. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then when we’ll have the staff meeting. Let's hope we get a few more answers. I saved the wax seal, hopefully Filius or Cutherbert will be able to tell us more,” she said as she stood.

Severus stood, bowing slightly, “Very well, goodnight Minerva. Try to get some sleep.”

***

Ambrosius sat in silence on the carriage ride to Hogwarts, since his own home was technically within Hogwarts grounds he couldn’t yet apparate to the castle. Not until he became the Headmaster or had some control of the grounds wards. He couldn’t believe it had already been over a month since he’d arrived in the place. Looking out onto the lightly snow covered landscape he thought back to the events of the past month. The goblins had spent hours of their time helping him jog some of this body's memories, practicing his masteries (which went remarkably well), and gathering all that he needed to make his next moves. He commented to himself that it was almost like riding a bike again. New, but so familiar that it became basically effortless. Bakaby of course had helped so much over the past month as well, helping him remember things about himself, helping him gain the much needed practice with this new magic, and his ‘animagus’ form. He honestly didn’t think he would get much further until he’d found the journals. Oh, yes, the hidden study with almost wall to wall packed with journals he’d written in his previous life here. It had jogged more than a few memories, some that still left him with pools of anger and a deep seated need for revenge, but now was no the time. He had to stop this world from becoming like the last. The more he learned the more he understood why and how Lady Magic brought him back. In this life he’d been cursed as well, and when that curse was placed he was thrown from this body and into a new life as Harry James Potter. There was a link between the Voldemort of his past life, and whoever the Dark Lord, or as he’d come to know them as now; the Dark Lords, or this world. Ambrosius had figured that bit out last. Here there were two, where he’d only had to deal with one in his past life; now it would be harder.

Yet, he didn’t feel outmatched here. Something about his magic now felt older, far more powerful that he’d ever been able to become as Harry James Potter. It also felt more homey here, like he really belonged.

Ambrosius was pulled out of his thoughts by his familiar speaking, the clacking of the beak and soft croak drawing his attention. Salana, the caladrius, sat across from him, her tail feathers draped around her and onto the floor of the carriage, her head held high.

“Ah, thank you Salana,” he said to the bird, reaching out a hand palm up that she then rubbed her head against, “If you hadn’t said anything I honestly wouldn’t have noticed how close we are now, I best get ready,” he said as he grabbed his dress robe, pulling it on over his silk shirt and elegant dress slacks. When he looked out the window again he could see the castle, and a wave of magic hit him, Hogwart herself expressing her joy at his presence. He could tell the magic of the sentient castle was confused for a moment before recognizing him and bursting into joy. He could also feel her underlying sadness, though she tried to hide it well from him.

Salana hopped closer to the window, looking out at the castle with her companion. 

As they reached the front, the carriage stopped, and Ambrosius gathered himself before stepping out onto the snow. Salana followed, flying out of the carriage and then perching herself on top of it. She already understood that she was far too big to ride on her master’s shoulders comfortably while he remained in human form.

“Salana, you wouldn’t mind staying here and keeping our equusix warm till someone comes to collect them and place them in the stable?” he questioned, motioning to the black six-legged two-headed horse. “I’m sure they’ll appreciate it,” he added. Salana nodded, giving a low croak before hopping to the front of the carriage where her ambient warmth would keep the equusix comfortable. “Thank you,” Ambrosius said before turning towards the hall doors. He started up the steps, stopping to rest his hand on the doors for a moment. Finally, he was home.

Severus and Minerva stood beyond the pendulum, watching and waiting for the man that had sent them the letter some time ago. There had been little contact between them and this Lord Le Fay, but so far the board was leaning in the direction of having him take over the Headmaster’s position. Minerva wanted to get to know the man first, as did Severus. 

Severus lifted his hand to scratch under his familiar’s beak, trying to sooth his own worries. He was not prepared for the man that entered the hall, and by reading Minerva’s face neither had she. Both were expecting a much older man, but what they were now face to face with was a much younger man, or at least that’s how he appeared. Severus guessed that off appearance alone, many would say he was in his early forties, perhaps late thirties; older than Severus was but not by much. He was dressed in a long thin robe of sapphire blue with vines of copper, and copper trim. Underneath it was an ivory silk shirt with a soft drawstring tie for the neck line, and black slim dress pants. It honestly reminded him a bit of how Lucius dressed when he wasn’t planning something a little extra. If anything, that thought made him more suspicious of the man walking towards them then he already was. Once he drew closer Severus inhaled sharply, a sudden trickle or arousal stirring in his chest. The man’s skin was a gorgeous golden mocha, covered in darker flecks of freckled skin from head to toe, a dark mole just underneath and to the side of his lower lip. Severus also noticed that, despite having his hair tied back into a high ponytail, the unruly curls still came down to the man’s hips. What really caught Severus’ attention though was the off-white dead looking eyes; if he didn’t know any better he’d say the man was blind. Yet, he seemed to be moving about the castle just fine. Severus watched Minerva seem to come to the same conclusion as her face flashed with a moment of shock before calming again.

“Lord Le Fay?” Minerva asked, stepping forward gracefully.

Severus watched the man nod and smile politely in response. “Yes, that would be my name, but there is no need to be so formal,” he said with a smile as he reached out his hand to Minerva, “Please, just call me Ambr, or Le Fay whichever makes you more comfortable.”

Severus could have melted when the man spoke, it was like thick honey and it made his mouth water. He berated himself for his loss of composure, but still found himself becoming disappointed as the man’s smile faded. When Ambrosius looked at him he immediately occluded when he felt the brush of magic against his thoughts. It was heavier than he could defend against, but to his surprise it didn’t push past his wall, instead retreating just as gently as it had started. 

“I see you don’t trust me,” Ambrosius said with a slight chuckle.

Severus froze up for a moment, piecing what had occurred together and then mustered a small smile. The interest he’d had in the man suddenly squashed, “It’s a good habit to have when anyone goes poking around where they shouldn’t,” he glanced at Minerva and he could tell she too had started to occlude.

“I was merrily checking your defenses. I’d heard that you were a master at both Occlumency and Legilimency, though that has yet to be proven. The walls you just threw up, after all, were child's play,” Ambrosius stated.

Severus couldn’t keep the scowl off his face even if he wanted to. How dare he insult him, even if the man had more power, that didn’t necessarily mean he could get what he wanted from Severus. He could keep ten people working together at bay for at least a week till they were too confused to get anything out of his head. To think one man could possibly break down all his walls was ridiculous.

“Perhaps we should head into the great hall and join the rest of Hogwarts for dinner. That way you can see just how well your land is being put to use Le Fay,” Minerva said, breaking the tension as she held out her arm for Ambrosius, “Do you need any help getting around?” she asked.

Ambrosius’ brows rose and Severus could see the man’s eyes move from one person to the next. Based on the movement he guessed the man had at least some vision, though his eyes still sent shivers down Severus' spine. The last time he’d seen eyes as dead looking as those had been when he encountered the Uthareal. 

Ambrosius shook his head, “Oh no, I know my way around this castle like the back of my hand.”

Both Minerva and Severus shared a nervous glance before heading into the hall. 

The students' heads all turned to gawk at the three adults entering the hall, most of their attention on the man holding onto their Deputy Headmistress’ arm. Once they reached the table Minerva took up her spot at the middle, standing in front of the hall where everyone could see her.

“I hope everyone is having a good night,” she said, using her wand to boost her voice. The hall cheered for a long moment and then as Minerva lifted her hand the hall slowly quieted. “I would like to introduce you all to Ambrosius Morrigan Le Fay,” she paused to motion to the elegant man sitting to her right as he stood and gave a short but deep bow, “Lord Le Fay will be housing with us for a while, as the staff and board members decide the next Headmaster. We ask that you all treat him with the utmost respect while he stays with us.” The hall seemed to hum with discussion as the students took in the information. “Now, without further delay, let us eat!” she said with a bright smile as the food appeared on the tables. The hall cheered loudly as she turned to sit, pulling her own food onto her plate.

Severus picked at his food, glancing up at Le Fay repeatedly. Something about the way the man moved screamed inhuman to him. Yet, they had purposely set the meeting up with enough sun that he would have had to reschedule if he’d been a vampire. And he carried no ring on his hand that would reflect the sun. Though, he could tell that the man had a great many other rings on his thin fingers. Le Fay put him in a state of unease, and the very fact that he had the gal to insult him earlier really rubbed him the wrong way.

“So, Lord Le Fay, me and my colleague wanted to ask you about your seal,” Filius said as he pulled apart his food before taking a bite of it.

“Oh, what about it?” Ambrosius responded, pausing to take a sip of his drink, “And please, just Le Fay, or better yet just Ambr,” he added. 

“Well, we wanted to ask about your signet, its design is close to that of Hogwarts, yet I’m unsure of the actual detailed depiction, they look like animals but they aren’t any that I recognize,” Filius stated, holding out the wax seal and the levitating it over to Ambrosius.

Severus watched the interaction with great interest, anything he could learn about the man would give him much further insight into just what he was, and what his plans were. 

Ambrosius rolled the seal between his fingers, a sad smile began to form on his face, “You are correct, the Hogwarts seal or crest was actually designed after my own seal; which I shared with the founders. As for the animals depicted, I highly doubt that you’ve encountered them often enough to recognize them in such low detail. They aren’t native to the area, nor are they anywhere near common. Each one represented one of my mates, the same mates that then went on to found Hogwarts,” Ambrosius paused, and Severus was sure he could see a touch of rage buried beneath the man’s mask he currently held in place, “Slytherin is represented by a Runespoor, Hufflepuff is the Eastern Griffon, Ravenclaw is the Roc, and Gryffindor is a Nemean Lion, the middle creature is a Caladrius,” he paused and laughed softly, “The four hated that I’d chosen such powerful symbols to represent them. Always said it as far too ostentatious. Your Hogwarts house mascots are what the founders chose, they were fairly adamant that the house creatures be simple, much to my dismay.” 

Severus watched him continue to roll the seal in his hands for a moment before the older man crushed it, letting the remains fall onto his napkin. He wondered what could have happened to the man to create so much rage.

“Oh,” Filius said, his tone full of surprise. 

Ambrosius seemed to catch it and tilted his head. “Were you not informed of my previous involvement in Hogwarts before I arrived?” he asked.

Severus could hear Filius swallow even from where he was sitting. “I, yes, we were. I just didn’t know how involved, I apologize,” Filius stuttered.

Ambrosius shook his head, “No need. It was a long, long time ago. One that,” Severus watched as the older man quickly lifted a hand to his head, and Severus could tell the man was in pain, “One that I’d rather not remember at the moment,” Ambrosius finished with a sigh, laying his hand back down on the table as he stretched out his neck and tried to ignore the pain building in his head. “Minerva, everyone, I believe I must turn in for the night. It’s been a long day,” he said as he stood, bowing slightly.

Minerva went to stand but Ambrosius waved her back into her seat. “At least let Severus take you to where you’ll be staying,” Minerva said, motioning with her hand to make sure Severus was paying attention. 

“Oh, I actually planned a place to stay already, there is no need. Hogwarts has provided my old rooms within the Astronomy Tower,” Minerva was about to interject that there wasn’t anywhere in the Astronomy Tower he could stay when Ambrosius spoke again, “You needn’t worry about classes. The room itself it’s... special,” he said, “It won’t be in the way, and there is no chance of your students stumbling upon it.”

“At least let Severus escort you, I’m sure you have a few things you can talk about. After all you both have masteries in the same subject,” Minerva stated. 

Severus started to stand, now was his chance to press for answers, see if this man really was who he said he was. That was until Tom stood, “Actually, Minerva we are leaving together.”

Severus and Minerva were both stunned. What would their DADA teacher want to speak to Ambrosius privately about? 

“Oh,” Minerva finally said, the smallest frown forming on her face, “I see, well then. Severus, I guess you’re free tonight,” she said as she glanced over at the potions master.

Severus’ hands clenched his pant leg underneath the table. This setup stunk horribly, and Severus pledged to himself that he’d dig to the bottom of it till he got his answers.

Both Tom and Ambrosius excused themselves and headed out, leaving the rest of the staff to wonder what just really happened.

***

Ambrosius was exhausted, and the migraine he’d gained during his conversation with Filius wouldn’t be waning any time soon. He glanced to his side, a small smile pulling across his face. “I must thank you for pulling me out when you did,” he said, lifting a hand and slapping it down Tom’s shoulder, gripping him tightly for a moment.

Tom let out a nervous laugh, “I couldn’t just let them keep pounding you with questions like that on your first day. Even I was having a hard time with the way they kept eyeing you like some unpleasant pest.”

“They’ll come around soon enough,” Ambrosius said, his eyes wrinkling as he grinned at Tom, “It took you almost the whole month to trust me didn’t it?”

Tom shrugged off Ambr’s hand, “Now that’s different. I had a mysterious man messaging me, claiming to be a distant relative. I’d honestly say that’s worse!”

Ambrosius stopped in his tracks, turning to face Tom and pointed thin finger, “Ah, but you still listened, and learned. You let me speak and divulge information at a pace I was comfortable with,” he waved back towards the main hall, “They, all they want is answers. They want to know what I’m planning. Some of them may even think I’m one of the Dark Lords in disguise using a dead man’s name.”

“Well, you do look unnaturally young for your age,” Tom muttered.

“I heard that,” Ambrosius said as he turned on his heel, muttering to himself. It wasn’t his fault he didn’t age any faster than phoenix did.

“You really are a crotchety old man behind that plush young appearance aren’t you,” Tom laughed.

“Now that was just rude. I am not old.”

“You’re nearly 1,051 years old! You’re ancient!”

“Do I look ancient to you?”

“Well no.”

“Then I’m not old,” he said spitefully.

Tom smiled, shaking his head, “I’m just happy to know I have some kind of living family out there.”

Ambrosius could hear the sadness that lingered in Tom’s voice, and he chanced a glance at the man before nodding. “Well, it’s not just me remember. Speaking of which, what did you learn about our younger relative?”

“Harry Potter, well, it seems he was orphaned at a very young age during a magical accident. No one is sure of the cause, but he then went to live with the Black Family. Sirius Black and his husband Lupin. They are his current guardians,” Tom paused, “Do you plan on reaching out?” he asked.

Ambrosius stopped, glancing at the painting of a lighthouse, its light shining out of the ocean as a beacon of hope for weary sailors. It was a fitting scene to cover the entrance to his quarters. He didn’t think he’d remember the path with his spotty memory but Hogwarts had done her best to lead him in the right direction. “No,” he finally said as he turned to face Tom, “Perhaps once he’s older and free to make his own choices I’ll do so, but for now I only plan on guiding him and the rest of the wizarding world from here,” he paused, looking into Tom’s face, “We are entering a time right now where not everyone will be safe, or survive.” 

Ambrosius watched Tom’s face fall and the younger man nodded.

“Yes, I remember you telling me, and something attacked Harry Potter once already.”

Ambrosius nodded back, “Well, let's not think of that now. Right now we have Headmistress McGongall and Snape to figure out. Hopefully, I can gain their trust before the winter break, or else we may be without a Headmaster longer than the board would like.”

Tom nodded, then paused, glancing around for a moment.

“You feel it then,” Ambrosius said. He’d had the distinct feeling that they were being watched after they’d left the vicinity of the main hall, he’d ignored it till now, but the fact that Tom could now feel it as well could only mean that whoever of whatever had chosen to spy on them had gotten bold enough to draw closer.

Tom shifted from foot to foot but didn’t say anything more.

“We’ll leave it here, whoever or whatever it is doesn’t seem like it has any plan to harm us. Better to act like we never noticed then to go looking for it. I’ll leave you to the rest of your night then, have a pleasant journey back,” Ambrosius said. Tom nodded, reaching in to hug the older man tightly before turning to leave.

Ambrosius stood in the hall outside the astronomy tower for a few moments, watching Tom disappear into the dark of Hogwarts’ hall before turning back to the painting.

“ _ Ambrosius,” _ he whispered in parseltongue, smiling widely as the painting creaked open. He stepped threw, inhaling as the smell of pine and moss hit his nose, and he looked up at the ceiling which was covered in a map of the stars. The whole room was decorated in a spread of dark blues and purples, a few hints of green at the edges of the room. The furniture was all ebony, and by the fire he could spot two deeply blue colored high backed chairs, with tea already sitting next to one of them. Perched on a dark wood stand in the corner of the main sitting room was Salana, preening her grey-blue smoldering feathers. Ambrosius pulled off his shoes for slippers and immediately headed for the bedroom, stripping as he went and banishing his clothes to the laundry as he went. He called for his sleep wear, pulling it on as he got into his bedroom and then collapsed on the bed. Salana came soaring in after him, landing on the bed next to him and then nibbling his ear. 

This, this was what it felt like to be home, he told himself. Now, though, came the real hard part.


	7. Thunder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and his friends try to figure out there plan for winter break.  
> Severus tries to get answer's to all of his questions, but learns something instead.  
> Lucius has to face what he'd created.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading. If any of you would like to listen to the song that had a major part in the idea for this fic, its an old Nordic lullaby called Vargsången. And you can listen to the version I do by following this link, https://youtu.be/KTmatjyd4KM I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do, and hopefully you'll under stand its meaning on the story. If you click the cc button it will give you the english lyrics.

“What are we going to do during the break?” Hermione asked as she looked up from her book, her Ravenclaw patch on her shirt catching for a moment. Ron nodded, expressing his own interest in wanting to know what the four of them planned.

Harry shrugged and looked over at Draco, he didn’t usually hang out with them, but since he and Ron had started to mend their past experiences their friendly relationship had gotten a bit better. Harry was happy for that, he didn’t want his best friend since elementary to hate his new friends here at Hogwarts. He glanced between them all and couldn’t help the small smile that formed. Sirius had said he’d make a lot of friends once he got to school, but he wasn’t expecting to find such **good** friends here. He thought they’d be like the rest, pitying him for his parents death. 

Ron he’d met on the train, he’d been sorted into Hufflepuff, Hermione he met shortly after, she’d been sorted into Ravenclaw, and then there was Draco. He and Draco had been sorted into Slytherin. At first it had put a bit of stress on the children’s relationship with one another, but like Hermione pointed out, these houses were only temporary. Once they were adults they’d all be the same. She’d been the one to bring them back together, despite Draco and Ron’s rivalry. 

“Draco and I plan on returning to our families, I’m hoping that when I get home I can use the Black library to research some of the things we couldn’t here. Like what attacked me and Draco in the woods. Or what that thing was that saved me,” Harry stated as he closed the book he had been reading, “What do you too plan on doing?”

Ron glanced at Hermione and nodded, “We are staying. My family’s on a trip, and Hermione, well, McGonagall thinks it's safer for any of the muggle-borns to avoid leaving the castle for now,” Ron said, placing his quill down as he paused the work he’d been doing on his DADA scroll.

“Hopefully, because some of the teachers that don’t have students will be headed to their own homes, we’ll get a chance to sneak into the off limits section of the library,” Hermione said, gesturing to the roped off area of the library. 

“What information do we have so far?” Draco asked, leaning his arm and head against the table. He’d already finished with all his work for this week, and was really only here because Harry had asked that he help them figure out what was going on here at Hogwarts. 

“Well,” Hermione said, “We know for sure now, that whatever that dog is guarding on the third floor is what that thing that attacked Harry has been trying to get to. What the item in question is we don’t know, hopefully we’ll make some progress during the break,” she paused and then pulled out another book from the pile before flipping pages and then turning it to face the others, “As for what saved Harry, I think it was this. Hagrid called it a dark unicorn but it's actually called a Uthareal.”

Harry leaned in to really see the picture and there it was, the horse like creature he’d seen that night that still haunted his nightmares. Not necessarily in a bad way, but he could never figure out if it was saving him, or hunting him.

“Apparently it’s a dark creature, and highly dangerous. Wizards experimented with their creation in hopes of creating something that was close to immortality, but easier to control than a phoenix. Since it wasn’t a true creature, and was created through wizarding means it didn’t have the protections that our normal magical creatures have. Hundreds of years ago it became outlawed to ever create another, because each one went mad. The last viable one lasted much longer than the others, and from what I could gather no one really understood why, but it ended up going mad just like the others and destroying much of what was civilization at that time. It was supposedly destroyed,” Hermione paused and turned the book around, “I say supposedly because unless someone, somehow managed to create another, the one that saved Harry would have to be the last one,” she said as she closed the book.

“So what Hagrid said was true, that things dangerous and could have turned on Harry,” Draco said, glancing over at his friend with the ‘I told you so’ look.

Hermione frowned, “I’m not so sure, I actually found something I think you guys should see. Me and Neville found it,” she said, and with that started to gather her book and place them in her bag. Everyone else followed suit and then trailed after her.

Draco looked over at Harry and then stepped up to his side, “Are you sure about this? I asked Father about this and he said we should leave it alone,” he whispered, “That it’s not something we should go digging up right now!” 

Harry frowned and then started walking a bit faster, he couldn’t believe Draco, he loved puzzles and mysterious just as much as Harry did. “You’re such a goody two shoes,” Harry whispered back so the others didn’t hear him. Suddenly Hermione stopped, glanced from side to side and then turned back towards the group.

“Here we are,” she said.

“A broom closet?” Ron questioned as he looked behind her, “Herm, we’ve walked by this hall thousands of times before, it’s just a broom-.” Ron’s eyes bulged as he watched the door change shape behind them and then slowly creak open.

“Come on, we have to hurry,” she said with a turn and rushed into the room. The others followed, and the doors closed behind them and disappeared.

“Great, now we can’t get out,” Ron said.

“Hush Ron,” Hermione berated, “Now just look,” she said as she twirled out into the middle of the room.

Harry looked, and something felt off about this place, like they were invading someone’s private space. “It looks like someone’s quarters,” Draco commented, “Like Snape’s almost. I bet that door back there opens onto the bedroom,” he stopped talking and took a step further in. The walls were littered with bookcases filled to the brim. And by the fireplace was a table with more books, and what looked like four journals, each with one of the Founder’s animal counterparts on the front.

“I actually agree with Draco, I feel like we shouldn’t be here, like it’s haunted,” Harry finally said as he walked over to the desk, cleaning off cobwebs and dust.

“You really think it’s someone’s quarters, Draco? This place is massive,” Ron said.

“Well, if you believe the myths and rumors about the founders, they were apparently more than just friends,” Draco paused as he made his way over to one of the bookcases and lifted a hand to stroke one of the spines, “If you believe those, then they were apparently married.”

“All four of them?” Ron asked as he went and sat on one of the chairs, kicking up a fair bit amount of dust in the process. He coughed, waving his hand in front of his face.

“Yes, and technically it wasn’t just the four of them,” Draco said as he turned around and walked over to Harry at the desk near the fireplace. He then pointed up at the coat of arms above the fireplace, “See. There, in the middle is a third animal.”

Ron looked up, as did Hermione.

“That doesn’t look like the Hogwarts seal,” Ron pointed out.

Hermione nodded, “No it doesn’t,” she paused and then moved closer, raising her hand to touch the seal carved into the stone above the fireplace, “Draco, you know pureblood families more than anyone else here. You’d agree with me in saying that this seal, based on the style, would be older than the Hogwarts’ one, correct?”

“Yes,” Draco said with a slow nod. Harry could hear Draco swallow thickly beside him and then the boy was suddenly squeezing his hand.

“What’s the matter Draco?” Harry asked in a low whisper. He could see that Draco was starting to shake a little, and he was worried about what would be causing his best friend to suddenly become so afraid.

“How did you find this place again?” Ron asked Hermione as she started sketching the seal into her notebook.

“Hmm? Oh, me and Neville found it the same day McGonagall introduced that odd man. We were both asking each other about who he could be, then talking about what saved attacked Harry. Yea know, the normal and then this door appeared. Neville went in first, he said that he could swear he’d heard someone singing, and they sounded sad. He wanted to see if they were okay. When we came in there wasn’t any one here,” she explained, “But I did find this,” she said as she grabbed the journal with an imprinted snake. She flipped open a few pages and then set it down in front of them. There on the inside of one of the pages was a sketch, of what Harry and the others could only assume was an Uthareal, with someone standing next to it with their hand on its neck. “I don’t understand the language it’s written in, but that's definitely an Uthareal, somehow the founders were involved with one. If I could understand the language then maybe I could get us more information but it doesn’t even make any sense. The structure is all wrong, for any language I know,” she said.

Harry glanced down at it, and suddenly the words started to change, “Hermione,” he paused, “You can’t read it because it's parseltongue.”

“You can read parseltongue?” Ron asked, surprised, and a bit disturbed.

“Yea, it’s apparently a thing on my father’s side, it’s pretty rare from what Sirius tells me,” Harry said, “Are the other ones like this?” he asked.

Hermione half shrugged, “Not exactly, they aren’t identical but each one seems to be in its own different language that I can’t read,” she said as she flipped each one open to the first page.

Draco looked down then, and Harry felt the hand in his start squeezing him even tighter. It looked like Draco was about to say something when they all suddenly froze, a low crying wail started to echo through the chamber, causing the four of them to start panicking.

“Hurry, grab the journals, we’ll take them with us,” Hermione said as she grabbed the Ravenclaw one. Each of them grabbed one, Draco and Harry taking the Slytherin and Gryffindor ones. The wailing grew louder, like someone signing to a somber waltz, and suddenly the four of them were being dive bombed by some ghostly entity, screeching at them like a banshee. The four of them started screaming and ran out the door that appeared, slamming it closed behind them and leaning on it as whatever was one the other side started to try and break through. There was a long moment of silence before they all took in a breath, sighing and slumping to the ground.

“What was that thing?” Ron asked.

“I don’t know, but it really didn’t want us in there I suppose,” Harry said, panting.

“And what would you four being doing on the floor,” came a low rumble. The group looked up in the face of the most dreaded professor, Professor Snape. “Having fun fooling around after curfew?” he drawled.

Hermione swallowed, “I’m sorry sir, we just lost track of time.”

Snape glared at all of them, leaving the most pointed one for his two snakes, “I’m sure,” he paused, “Ten points from each of your houses, now off to your dorms with you!” he snapped before the group could complain. He watched the other two scurry off before turning his attention back to his two pupils. “As for you two,” he drawled in a monotone voice, “I expected better, detention for both of you, tomorrow. You’ll both be scrubbing cauldrons,” he stated, before ushering the boys back toward their dorms. 

Harry and Draco both tried to keep a quick pace to avoid being lectured by their professor that followed behind them, and Draco looked even more pale than he had in the room. Harry finally gave in, “What is it Draco,” he whispered.

Draco glanced at him with scared eyes, “I recognized that seal, I’ll tell you more once we get to the dorms. I don’t want to risk Snape hearing us.”

Harry nodded. 

Once they were both back in their beds Harry snuck out of his, joining Draco on his as the boys blinking into the darkness. Harry cast a quick, soft colored Luminos and then grabbed his friends hang, squeezing it just lightly. “Now tell me, what got you so scared Draco,” he whispered.

Draco tore into his bottom lip for a good minute before gathering the courage to speak. “The seal in the room, I’ve seen it before.”

“Where?”

“On my father’s desk, he had at least two letters with that same seal on his desk, and then again when I was doing a detention for McGonagall a few weeks ago. When I asked her about it she wouldn’t answer, neither would my father. He just said it was a very old family friend that wanted to reach out,” he paused and licked his lips, “Harry, you know that man, Lord Le Fay,” Harry nodded, he didn’t like where this was going, “I heard Filius talking about an unusual seal the man had, and father, when I owled to him about it, told me not to go anywhere near him,” he paused again, “You don’t think that he could be **the** Le Fay that floats around with the rumors of the founders do you?”

Harry was frozen to the spot, he couldn’t think of anything to say, only that surely it couldn’t be the same person. “He’d have to be over a thousand years old Draco,” he said.

Draco nodded, seeming to get a small spurt of confidence and energy, “That’s what I thought but then I started thinking about what Hermione said about the Uthareal had how it was supposed to be an experiment with immortality; and now we have proof that the founders had some kind of connection to one. What if, hear me out, what if the Uthareal that saved you wasn’t just some fluke. What if it's a wizard? Or some kind of classification of Living Dead like Vampires?” Draco suggested.

“You think, Lord Le Fay is some thousand year old Uthareal vampire creature?” Harry stated for clarification.

Draco nodded rather violently, “You saw how on edge the staff was when Lord Le Fay walked in, what else could it be? That he’s really just that old of a wizard?”

Harry’s face screwed up in a mix of emotions, “I mean there are people like Winkle, he's what, 755 years old or something like it,” Harry mentioned.

Draco sighed, “I know, but even then, he still looks old. This Lord Le Fay doesn’t,” he said.

“Maybe he’s just a descendant then,” Harry suggested.

Draco frowned, “Wouldn’t the seal change then?”

“The what?”

Draco sighed and rolled his eyes, “While a crest doesn’t usually change, the seal changes because the signet usually changes from person to person. The old one is then destroyed so that it can’t be used to counterfeit letters or important documents,” Draco explained.

“Oh,” well that was something, Harry noted to himself. “But being the Uthareal, I think that's far-fetched. From what Hermione told us it’s an animal.”

Draco pulled out the Slytherin journal then, “You’re right, but we are also talking about a magical creature here, and there’s plenty of those that can mimic a human form, or even transform completely. We won’t know for sure until we read through these,” he said as he flipped open the journal to the page Hermione had shown them before.

Harry squirmed a bit on the bed, “And what if all these things we’re piecing together are just rumors? There’s something real out there in the forest trying to get in here and underneath to whatever that three-headed dog is guarding. And it doesn’t seem to like me very much,” he said. Draco let out a long sigh, “I know, it’s just,” he paused for a long moment, “I wasn’t going to say this but I heard Snape and my Father arguing over something when he came by last week. They were arguing about Le Fay and whether or not he could be trusted. My father seemed furious with Snape, trying to get him to listen to something my father was trying to point out. It seemed like he was telling Snape not to dig in any further into Le Fay’s life.”

“Then maybe we should take that into consideration, if Lucius doesn't want Snape involved he really wouldn’t like what we are doing right now,” Harry said, he got up from the bed and started to pace. He loved puzzles, but when Lucius or Sirius really got on him about one he shouldn’t mess with he listened. He knew they only got that mad when he could get hurt. 

“But what if I’m right Harry, aren’t you even curious?” he paused and turned to sit with his legs hanging over the side of the bed, “If someone is out there, protecting you from behind the lines, aren’t you even curious about who or what it is?” he paused, he knew he shouldn’t say this but he had to, to really get Harry to see the full picture, “What if whoever is protecting you is linked to your parent’s accident?”

Harry stopped pacing and slowly looked over at Draco. “You promised you wouldn’t,” Harry started but Draco was standing beside him in a flash.

“What happened to your parents isn’t your fault, Sirius even said so. He and my father have to be hiding what happened for a reason, and I’m only guessing here, but I've seen my father scared, truly scared only twice in my life. One, when he mentions what happened to your parents, and second when he opens one of those letters,” he stopped and then wrapped his arms around the other boy that could have been his brother in another life, “I know you want to know what happened to them just as much as I do,” he whispered into Harry’s ear.

Harry knew Draco was right, he did want to know, but both Sirius and Lucius always looked so sad and hurt when he asked. He even promised that he would stop digging when he went to Hogwarts, but Draco was right. He had this hunger, this need to know what happened that night. 

“Lets get some sleep,” Draco finally said as he released Harry from the hug. Harry nodded and headed off to his bed.

Even after he could hear Draco start to snore beside him, Harry stayed staring at the ceiling. What if Draco’s theory was true, what if he could get his answers from this Lord Le Fay. He sighed and closed his eyes, but all he could see was those silvery dead eyes staring back at him.

***

Ambrosius made his way through the snow flurries till he finally found his way to the stable run by Hagrid and Silvanus (since he retired from teaching). He was particularly happy to see neither of them in the vicinity, and he hoped he wouldn’t have to. It had been a week now, with only a few days before winter break, and the two would not stop pestering him about his equusix and how he’d come upon such a magnificent creature. To him, having such a creature was fairly normal, as he’d never been without one, but apparently neither of the other wizards even knew they existed. 

Well, he took that back, the old Harry Potter from the other realm would have been very confused as well, but it would seem Ambrosius had actually grown up with many equusix, then again he didn’t see them as pets either. More like extended family, they helped him learn how to hunt long before he was able to take the human form he could now. 

He stepped into the stable and a wave of warmth covered him, it made him far less worried to know that his friend was at least being properly cared for after having an argument with the Stablemasters. Both Hagrid and Silvanus had assumed that the equusix was like any other horse species, a herbivore. It had taken almost the whole night for Ambrosius to convince them, and only when he’d thrown in a live rabbit and watched the two equine heads shred into it did the Stablemasters finally believe him. Then came the onslaught of endless questions that Ambrosius did not have the time nor patience to answer. He was, however, able to get them to change what they’d been feeding the poor fellow. 

When he finally came to the stall his fellow equine was housed in he leaned on the stall door, digging into his bag to pull out the salted meat he’d brought as treats, even to him it smelled delicious. “How are you doing today Tordenfugl?” he asked the two headed stallion. The heads nickered at him and came over to the side of the stall, picking up the slab of meat and tossing it back before sniffing Ambrosius’ hand for more. He pulled out another, this time making sure to feed the opposite head. “Mind if I come in?” he asked.

The stallion snorted and moved from the door to create space as Ambrosius entered the stall, hanging the satchel full of meat chunks on the inside of the stall door. He reached over the stall door to grab the grooming tools and then pulled them into the stall and set them on the floor.

“I don’t have any plans today, so I thought, how about a spa day, how does that sound?” Ambrosius asked. Tordenfugl whinnied, both heads bobbing up and down. “Anything else you’d like?” he asked. The heads seemed to share an exchange of thought before nickering in low tones. “Ah, I see. Well then, perhaps our visitor is just rude,” Ambrosius said as he turned, blinking slow as the shadow along the wall stepped forward. Ambrosius couldn’t help the small smirk that formed on his face, “Ah, Professor Snape, fancy seeing you here. I didn’t realize you liked beasts of burden.”

Snape scowled, casting a glance at the jet black, silver maned, two-headed horse, and was that six legs he spotted? “I don’t,” he drawled out as he watched the fiery stallion’s eyes follow him as he drew closer to the stall.

“I’d be careful if I were you, you think hippogriffs are easily insulted? This guy will dispatch you far faster than any hippogriff would,” Ambrosius said as he patted one of Tordenfugl’s thick necks. The beast let out a good long puff of air for good measure which caused the potions master to rethink his approach. 

“What would you suggest then, Lord Le Fay,” Severus asked cautiously. 

Ambrosius picked up the satchel and threw it at Severus, who caught it with a sickening slurp as the meat in the satchel stuck and unstuck from each other. Ambrosius’ smirk thickened when he noticed the sudden look of disgust on Severus’ face when the professor realized what was inside it. “Toss some treats,” Ambrosius said with a good chuckle as he picked up a hoof pick, and started to lift one of Tordenfugl’s giant feet. 

“This thin-,” he cut himself off as the animal looked at him, and Severus got the distinct feeling it could understand every word he said. He cleared his throat, “This lovely animal eats meat?” he asked as he opened the satchel and pulled out one of the limp salted chunks of meat.

“Yes,” Ambrosius stated as he set the large hoof down, and reached for the back one, “Equusix are omnivores by nature, but primarily carnivorous. I’m sure it wouldn’t be the only carnivorous species of equine you’ve come across, after all, Hagrid is rather proud of his herd of Thestrals that live here on the grounds. Though, I’m not sure how he accounts for the Unicorns here under his care as well. If I’m not mistaken they are a natural prey species for Thestrals,” Ambrosius stated as he worked on the back feet of the six legged horse.

“I have a feeling that more research should really go into the links between Unicorns and Thestrals,” Severus said as he threw the meat chunk towards the equusix and watched the two heads catch the piece in mid air, squabbling over it for a moment.

“Careful, don’t feed just one head,” Ambrosius commented as he moved around to the other side of the equine to work on the other hooves, “You’ll get an imbalance, and it’s not pretty. I’m sure you’ve done more research into Runespoors,” Ambrosius mentioned, “You can get the same occurrence here, one head kills the other, I’d rather not have my companion ruining itself because of your mistakes. Now, why do you say that about Thestrals and Unicorns?” Ambrosius questioned, rather curious now as to how Severus had come to this conclusion. 

Severus stepped closer, this time targeting the other head and tossing the meat to it, “I’ve been doing quite a bit of research lately, and in all of these papers on magical creature behavior, I haven’t once come across any actual instance in which a Thestral goes out of its way to hunt and kill a Unicorn. In all my research, it would seem that while territorial fights happen, the only time predation really happens is during a Thestral breeding season, in which time food is usually scarce,” he stopped when he saw Ambrosius stand and lean across the stallions back to watch him, the man was gorgeous, and today Severus had just enough luck to finally see the man with his hair completely down, “but even then it’s usually only one, and the way in which it happens. It's like the Unicorn presents itself.” 

“Odd behavior for an animal,” Ambrosius noted, he reached a hand to stroke through Tordenfugl’s mane, “Then again, perhaps what wizards know of magical creatures is wrong, maybe they are more than just animals. I mean, we often enough claim familiars, and they are able to communicate on a level similar to humans.”

“But that’s because of the magical bond that's built,” Severus stated roughly as he drew closer and threw in two more meat slabs.

“Is it though?” he replied as he toyed with Tordenfugl’s right neck mane, braiding the silver hairs, “Based off what wizarding kind knows about the delicate interactions between themselves and a magical animal, and the strict etiquette you have to follow with some species, perhaps, in a way, they are no different than us. Perhaps they have their own society, their own rules, ones handed down to them far before wizards, humans, muggles, etc ever came along.”

Severus paused, “Are you trying to say that animals are further evolved than wizard kind? If anyone else had heard you say that, they would think you’re nuts.”

“And you don’t?” Ambrosius’ interest had peaked, perhaps there was hope for his old potions master yet. Maybe, just maybe, he had been right to try and save him in the old timeline.

Severus took a long pause and set down the satchel, letting it hang over the side of the stable, “I’m not sure what I think anymore,” Severus said slowly, what was happening? What suddenly made him think this was a good time to lay out his own troubles. He’d come here for answers when he’s spotted Le Fay coming out here on his own, not to spill his own thoughts out right here and now. “I had a run in with a dark creature a while back, and I started doing research on it, but the more I did, the more questions I had. Not just about it, but how we wizards view the world around us, this lack of progress we seem to make compared to the muggles, or the history we seem to either forget or suddenly outlaw. Then there’s these humanoid creatures that we suddenly make treaties with, and the average citizen doesn't understand why, but we are also told that they are dark or evil. Is that really the truth?” Severus let the question hang in the air, and he found himself leaning on the stall door, looking back at Ambrosius like he had the answer.

Ambrosius let out a long sigh and then came back around the other side of his equine companion, rubbing his hand along it’s silky fur before looking back at Severus. “Take a good look at this animal, I noticed before that you stopped what you were going to say about it earlier, you changed how you referred to it, why?” Ambrosius asked.

Severus blinked, “Because it looked like it would rip my arm off, that if I had said what I’d thought it would have been very insulted,” he answered truthfully.

Ambrosius chuckled, “But it’s an animal, surely it wouldn’t have mattered.”

Severus frowned, “But you said-.”

Ambrosius waved his hand, “What I said was correct, but why would manners matter to an animal, why would etiquette matter?”

Severus sighed, his eyes hovering on the two-headed equine in front of him.

“Tell me Professor Snape, when you look, really look at him, what do you see?” 

Severus’ frown deepened but he continued to stare at the stallion as it pawed the floor of the stable. He swallowed, forcing himself to concentrate, if this was a man, what would he look like.

Ambrosius watched, taking in every slight movement Snape made and a smile started to replace his grin. “Good, now without losing that image, ask him his name,” Ambrosius said.

“His name?” Severus said, confused.

“Shh, you’ll lose it!”

He watched as Severus closed his eyes, and he could see Severus struggling as he gripped that stall door tighter. 

“Umm,” Severus' eyes darted back and forth behind his eyelids, slowly an image formed over his idea of the stallion in front of him, “Thunderbirds?” he questioned as he opened his eyes again.

Ambrosius could feel the swell of pride from Tordenfugl, and the equine heads nickered. Severus suddenly found himself eye to eye with both of the equusix’ heads, each trying to get his attention. He lifted both hands and laid one on either head, scratching between the animals two sets of ears.

“Close,” Ambrosius said as he gathered the grooming tools and placed them back outside the stall, he squeezed through the stall door, letting it click behind him. “Their name,” he said as he gestured to the two heads, “is Tordenfugl. Have you ever heard about the three name theory?” Ambrosius asked as he pulled the satchel back over his shoulder. 

Severus nodded, “In passing,” he said as he continued to rub on the stallions heads.

“Well, it’s not just a theory,” Ambrosius said as he stretched his neck, “You just learned his name of power. Keep it to yourself, and never use it without a reason. If you ever need help in a tight spot, just say it, and it will summon him just like if you used a command to summon your familiar.”

Severus eyes bulged, “Wait what?”

“You asked for his name, and he gave it to you.”

“But you-.”

“I merrily helped translate it,” Ambrosius stated, “Now if you don’t mind stepping back,” he said to Snape. Snape did exactly that and he watched as Ambrosius let the equusix out and then swung up onto the animals back. “If you would like, you may refer to him as Thunder in passing,” he said as he placed a hand between the animals two necks.

Severus followed them as Ambrosius rode out of the stable on the equine’s back, the six massive hooves clattering loudly on the cobblestone ground. “Now, if you’d excuse me, our mutual friend has asked for a good runabout.”

“Wait, I had questions I wanted to ask you,” Severus hooted as the pair started to head off onto the rest of the castle grounds, they stopped and Ambrosius looked over his shoulder.

“Questions, questions, so many questions. What is it this time?”

“Are you really Ambrosius Morrigan Le Fay?”

Ambrosius patted Tordenfugl’s neck for a long moment, “For now, I suppose so,” he answered before tightening his grip on Tordenfugl’s manes, and with a little rear the pair were off.

“What kind of answer is that!” Severus shouted after them, running to the gate and stopped, staring after them as they headed off to wherever. Severus looked up, and there in the sky was a Caladrius, flying after them with its long tail feathers twisting in the wind. 

Severus hadn’t gotten his questions answered, but he did learn a few new things. Like the fact, that maybe, just maybe, he could learn to trust this man like Lucius begged him to do.

***

Lucius had been rather surprised to get the summons for Lord Le Fay, but he dared not hesitate to show his up either. Once he’d really realized just who he was, and who he was really, he’d been scared. While he’d been grateful for what the old man had done so many years ago, he was also on high alert when his bank manager had informed him that Le Fay was on the move again. The only thing that kept him sane in this room was the fact that Tom Riddle had been summoned as well, the two had been messaging back and forth for about a week now, but nothing too important had ever been exchanged, not until today. Both had received identical letters from Lord Le Fay, with instructions on how to floo into his quarters without activating Hogwarts’ wards. Both sat waiting for Ambrosius to start, but currently the man just sat in his high backed chair, stroking his bird’s belly feathers.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I asked for the two of you to meet me here,” Ambrosius stated as he lifted his tea to his lips, “I’d like to discuss Harry Potter,” he stated.

Both men stiffened just a bit.

“Bakaby, the sweet house-elf, has informed me that I made a deal with one Lucius Malfoy, and Sirius Black approximately ten years ago, and yet I have no memory of it. Now why would my most loyal house-elf lie?” he asked the two sitting in front of him. He’d thought about beginning Black into this as well, but having Tom as a buffer for two people just seemed cruel. “Surely he wouldn’t lie to his master, so how would two wizards make a deal with someone they didn’t even know existed?”

Lucius swallowed, so this was about what happened ten years ago. Lily and James’ ‘accident’. Tom just looked confused, from what Ambrosius had told him, he’d been in a magical coma for hundreds of years now, and had only this year woken.

“I would like answers,” Ambrosius finally said as he crossed his leg over his knee.

“I can’t give them to you,” Lucius finally blurted out, “At least not all of them.”

“Explain,” Ambrosius commanded as he breathed in deep to calm himself. Salana was also there at his side, preening through some of his hair to keep his attention divided so he wasn’t solely focused on the anger that bubbled up inside him.

“It started while I was still in Hogwarts, one year, me and a friend went exploring and found a very old, very odd looking statue in the Forbidden woods. While messing around one of us cut ourselves on the statue, it was an accident, but we learned that if you cut yourself and got you blood on the statue, you could make a wish and have it come true. It was silly, small things, we didn’t think anything of it. But as the years passed we got a bit bolder, that was until I somehow cut the statue,” Lucius said, his eyes resting on the floor, “And it started to bleed.”

Tom looked between the two of them for a moment, his face starting to pale, “How does a statue bleed?”

Ambrosius tilted his head back to look at his starry ceiling, “They don’t unless they aren’t just a statue,” he was starting to get the picture now.

Lucius nodded, “I realized then that what we’d been using wasn’t just some enchanted statue, but some kind of living creature, after that I refused to ever take anyone there again. That was until Severus Snape was tricked into coming out on a full moon, and was attacked by another student werewolf that had yet to accept his wolf. The others that had tricked him didn’t know what to do, they couldn’t get help from the teachers, so they came to me. Rumors had passed around the school about the statue and my involvement. I couldn’t just let my best friend die, so I took them to the statue, but no matter what I did or how hard I wished after adding my blood to the statue it wasn’t healing him,” Lucius paused to lick his lips, “Then I remembered how I’d cut the statue, I spread the blood over Severus’ wounds and they healed, but then the statue spoke to me. In return, it took some of my magic and Severus’ memories of ever being injured.”

Tom didn’t know what to say. “You used something you had no information on? You could have,” Tom sputtered, this was madness.

“What would you have done?” Lucius said in a low growl, “Let your friend die?”

Ambrosius stood from his seat and stepped up to the fireplace, leaning against it with his head to the wall. “What happened ten years ago Lucius?”

“Sirius, he brought me Lily and Potter’s son, he wouldn’t tell me what happened, he just wanted me to fix him. The boy was near dead, too far to be saved by any healer, so we went back to that statue,” Ambrosius stiffened, so, that’s the connection, other than bloodlines, this was the connection. The one that linked all three of their curses together, “We did the same thing, only there was no open wound, so we fed the blood to the child.”

Ambrosius’ eyes flared and he spun around, “YOU DID WHAT?!” he bellowed, the wild magic in the room suddenly bouncing off the wall, Salana was flying around the room, trying hard not to be swept up in the magic currents swirling around the room. Tom was holding tight to his chair, and he could feel the chair start to drag around the room. Suddenly the room filled with light, a soft burring blue as Salana began to sing. Slowly the magic began to settle, and Ambrosius could feel his anger and pain being drawn away, the room starting to warm. Ambrosius stood in the middle of the room, his hands clutching his robe as he closed his eyes. Images of the night Lucius had started to describe flashed across his memories, as did the memories of the night his mates were murdered, and the destruction that followed. He knew this wasn’t him, not the man he was now, but a past life. He was still Harry Potter, in one way or another.

“Is everyone okay?” Tom finally asked as he glanced around the trashed room. Lucius nodded as he pulled himself from the floor, coughing slightly as Ambrosius then came over to help him stand the rest of the way.

“I apologize Lucius, I didn’t mean-.”

“It’s fine,” Lucius stated, patting and then gripping Ambrosius’ hand tightly, “It is I that should be apologizing, we took advantage of a starving creature without thinking of the consequences when that being woke, without us holding up our end of the bargain.”

Tom stared at the two men, confused but he didn’t want to say anything.

“What was the payment I asked for?” Ambrosius asked quietly.

Lucius met those dead eyes and he could feel the fear trickle down his spine, “Our lives, to feed you until you woke,” he paused, “Sirius didn’t know, don’t take it out on him. He has a family, raised the Potter boy as his own. I only told him after I’d learned who or rather what you were, he’s terrified that you’ll come to collect.”

Tom watched as Lucius’ gaze fell to the ground and Ambrosius let go of Lucius had, almost smacking it away. “So even though you knew what you had signed up for, you never followed through?” Ambrosius said as he turned away to face the fire, “You’re admitting it?” he asked again, he wanted to make sure Lucius was sure.

“Yes,” Lucius said, swallowing thickly.

Ambrosius glanced over his shoulder, “Then, you’ll take on full responsibility, you’ll swear on your magic? Swear to Lady Magic?” he asked.

Lucius stood straight, pulling his wand from his can and holding it to his heart, “I swear that I will take full accountability and responsibility for the bargain made that night. I and I alone,” he said, and with that a silver thread appeared between him and Ambrosius, solidifying and glowing brightly for a moment before fading.

“Tom, you may leave,” Ambrosius said softly, glancing at the younger man.

“But, didn’t we have other things to discuss? Harry-.”

“Can, wait,” Ambrosius said, “There are things that even my relatives should not be witness to,” he said to Tom as he turned to face him, “Besides, you have classes to attend to in the morning. I’d hate for you to be too tired in the morning to deal with your student.”

Tom nodded, understanding now that his extra great-grandfather was politely telling him to leave, now before he threw him out. He was curious about what would happen when he left, but based on what Ambrosius was saying it wouldn’t be pretty.

“I bid you both goodnight then,” he said with a slight bow before turning to leave. He chanced a glance back as the painting closed behind him and instantly regretted it. High tailing it out of there as the remnants of the icy stare he’d received still pricked at the hair along his spine. Fear was a powerful motivator.

Ambrosius waved his hand, adding more wood to the fire as Salana settled back onto her perch, softly the still air around them was filled with quiet song. Lucius stayed standing in the middle of the room, his hands twisting around his wrists as he wrung them nervously. “What is the song she’s singing?” Lucius asked quietly. 

Ambrosius smiled sadly as he passed Salana, petting the crown of her head, “It's on old nordic lullaby about a starving wolf, Rowena used to sing it during the winter before Hogwarts was finished being built. She never told me the words for it, but Salana learned it. She was raised from birth by Rowena, I think she misses her just as much as I,” he said before he walked back to Lucius, standing in front of him now. 

“You really would give yourself up for Sirius and the child,” Ambrosius asked as he lifted a hand to Lucius’ chin, forcing the man to look up at him.

“Yes,” Lucius murmured, “I won’t let you take either of them, not since I’ve started viewing them both as my own family,” he declared. Looking into those dead eyes fear started to sprinkle down his spine; every sense in his body told him to run. Blinking quickly he tore himself out of his frozen state, watching his hands shake as he tilted his head and pulled his hair away from his neck. “Will it hurt?” he asked softly.

Ambrosius leaned in, feeling the pull of a pulse of energy beneath Lucius’ skin. “Only if you resist,” he whispered across Lucius’ skin, “I’m not like a vampire, it isn’t about just the blood, it's about the veins of magic,” he paused, “The soul.”

With that Lucius caught the glint of a fanged mouth out of the corner of his eye, and a sudden sharp pinch. Suddenly all his senses were overwhelmed, and a massive current of magic started to pull on him, he tried to pull himself out of it and felt a sudden sharp pain in his chest. Slowly he relaxed to the current, feeling himself start to float in a stream of memories. He couldn’t concentrate on any specific one as he watched them steam by, but what he could feel was an overwhelming sensation of sorrow, loneliness, and guilt. It took him a moment to realize none of these memories or even emotions were his, they all belonged to Ambrosius. No, he thought to himself, he knew this beast's true name. Not his name of power, not his given name, his true name. A’bhais, Son of Death. And with that thought, he felt himself slip in darkness.


	8. Lightening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Severus finally gets his answers.

Severus was listening to his record player, watching the disc spin as the air was filled with a beautiful waltz. He was sitting there drinking a dark tea, watching the fire burn away at the logs as he let his thoughts wonder. He was drawn back to the stable and the conversation he’d had with Ambrosius. What if animals really were just as sophisticated as humans? Or at least magical ones? The thought honestly made Severus nervous as he glanced over at Morfeel, watching the raven snooze on his perch.

How many times had any wizard abused or treated their animal counterparts as less than them. Severus would like to say that he’d never treated an animal as such, but there's been a few times that he’d cussed out a cat or bird, only to get bitten or shit on.

He’d have to really rethink everything, and the three name theory. He’d heard about it in passing, but now he had some kind of proof that it was real, all this new information was stressing him out, and he hadn’t even gotten the real answers he’d wanted. 

Then a letter flew out of the fire and landed on his lap, it was sealed with the Hogwarts seal and he opened it gingerly. Inside was a simple phrase inscribed in Minerva’s handwriting. ‘They’ve decided.’ With that Severus was grabbing his robe and leaving his quarters.

It didn’t take him long to reach the Headmaster’s quarters, and once he arrived he was suddenly hit with a very strong scent of pine, and moss. 

There in the office was Minerva, half of the board, Lord Le Fay, and oddly enough Lucius. He wasn’t sure why Malfoy was here but he looked tired, far more tired than Severus had ever seen him. He took note of how heavily he leaned on his cane and then chanced a glance at Minerva. She was tight lipped and did not look happy. 

“I’m sorry Minerva, but it looks bad for all of us not to have someone in the Headmaster’s position over the holidays. Especially since we are supposed to be offering protection in this time of chaos,” the head of the board said, “Lord Le Fay here is already obligated to take up the Headmaster’s post when one isn’t presented as listed in the very foundations of Hogwarts. There is nothing you can do to change our minds.”

“Deputy Headmistress, I swear on my family name that I will serve Hogwarts to the best of my ability. You have nothing to worry about,” Ambrosius said, “Since break starts in two days I don’t plan on holding any announcements until after all the students have returned. Most have already started their journeys home.”

“What about the student’s staying here for the break?” Minerva questioned, giving Ambrosius the stink eye.

“I’m leaving all of that up to you to decide. I wouldn’t think the students would find it a little jarring to suddenly have a new Headmaster over the break, however, I would like to assume the other duties. That way I can adjust to the new position while most of the students are away, work from the sidelines till break is over. That way the transition is smooth when they return,” Ambrosius explained in reply.

She still didn’t seem to like it but she at least nodded her head, Severus was honestly impressed with how he’d handled it. 

“Well, if that settles it, we’ll be leaving,” the board members said and one by one they vanished into the floo. Leaving Minerva, Severus, Lucius and Ambrosius in the Headmaster’s office.

“Well, is there anything you’d like to change?” Minerva asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

Ambrosius glanced around the room, it wasn’t all that different than he remembered it being honestly. The color scheme was the only change he hadn’t been prepared for. Apparently Albus had not been the previous Headmaster, but a man named Charles, and it would seem that he was more than likely a Ravenclaw at some point. Ambrosius turned his attention back to Minerva, “Actually yes, I’d like you to split your Deputy duties with Severus, in my time there were two Deputies, and I’d like to bring it back. I’d also like to overhaul some of the classes, I’ve noticed that some of what used to be taught isn’t any more, and I’d like to add that curriculum back in. It’s part of why I’m splitting your duties with Severus,” he said as he sat down at the desk. Malfoy moved to stand beside him, and Severus was sure Malfoy was avoiding his gaze.

“I see,” Minerva said with a bit of surprise, “Thank you,” she said, feeling slightly confused but she was honestly grateful for the help. 

“Will that be okay with you Professor Snape?” Ambrosius asked.

Severus suddenly looked at Ambrosius, licking his lips as he tried to remember the question that was asked, he’d been paying more attention to Lucius. “Yes, that will be fine,” he half mumbled. Something about Lucius was screaming at him, telling him something was very wrong.

“Do you need something Severus?” Ambrosius repeated for the third time, Snape looked around, realizing that Minerva had already left and it was just him, Lucius and Ambrosius.

“I wanted to discuss something with Lucius, I was going to invite him to my quarters to discuss it,” Severus said, quickly glancing between the two, and being extra careful not to meet Ambrosius’ eyes. 

“I see, Lucius, you’re free to leave. We’ll discuss the rest of our exchange in the coming week,” Ambrosius said as he stood from his seat with a grace Severus had rarely seen. It was like the man suddenly had an extra pep in his step.

Lucius nodded to Ambrosius, “I look forward to it,” he said as he bowed and then headed toward the door past Severus. Severus watched the exchange, something about it seemed off.

“Oh, and Lord Malfoy,” Ambrosius spoke, causing Malfoy to half turn back towards him, “I trust this remains between us?”

Severus’ brows rose and he looked back at Lucius, his eyes taking him in head to toe.

“Of course Headmaster.”

“Good.”

And with that Severus and Lucius stepped out of the office and down the small staircase till they stood in the hallway. Severus watched as Lucius paused to lean against the wall.

“Allow me a moment if you would,” Lucius said, panting just enough that Severus’ keen eyes spotted the shimmer of his hair moving around his face. 

“Lucius, you look terrible,” Severus stated, stepping back towards his friend who tried to ward him off with his cane. “What’s happened to you?” Severus asked, putting an arm around Lucius and then continuing to do so as he helped him down the hall.

“I appear to have over exerted myself, nothing that a pepper up potion and a goodnight’s rest won’t fix,” Lucius said as he fixed his posture and then patted Severus’ hand to let him know he could stand on his own again.

“It seems little more than just that,” Severus said with a frown, he didn’t think Lucius would ever lie to him, but he was definitely keeping something from him. “Tell me what really happened,” Severus stated. 

“Oh, hush,” Lucius grumbled, “I’m fine. Just tired, now what was it that you wanted to discuss, I do have a family to get back to.”

Snape’s brow furrowed, “It can wait,” he replied.

Lucius let out a snort, “Are you worried about me Severus? How sweet.”

“Of course I’d be worried,” Severus said rather loudly, stopping in the hall and turning to face his childhood friend, “This the worst I’ve ever seen you. You’re even actually using your cane rather than just carrying it around to keep your wand in,” he said bitterly. “I’m your friend, surely you can tell me-.”

“No!” Lucius snapped, causing even Severus to take a step back, “It’s none of your business Severus, I won’t bring you into this mess.”

Severus’ face wrinkled into a snarl, “This is about what happened to Lily and that Potter boy isn’t it?” he snapped back.    
Lucius groaned, rolling his neck and shaking his head. That's when Severus saw it, a scar that covered a good portion of Lucius’ neck, it wasn’t just two pin pricks either, it looked like he’d been bitten by something big.

“Lucius!” Severus exclaimed, reaching a hand up lightning fast to push away the rest of Lucius’ hair, “What on this bloody earth happened to you! Is this why you’re so tired?”

“I said it was none of your business Severus!” Lucius said sharply, smacking Severus’ hand away.

Severus had a flash, remembering how close Lucius had been standing to Ambrosius earlier, he’d know that exchange was odd. You’re free to leave, that's only something you say when you have power over someone. Severus felt rage flare to life, “It's that man isn’t it! He did this to you! And after you pushed me to trust him!” Severus all but screamed.

“No, Severus is not what you think! Stop a moment, Severus!” Lucius bellowed after him, but it was too late, Severus’ form had already become a blur of black smoke that raced back the way they’d come, “Damn it Severus,” Lucius swore as he started to hobble after him. He just hoped he did get there too late.

Severus burst back in the Headmaster’s office, finding no one there he twisted around, wand at the ready. The portraits above him started to whisper, which only caused Severus to become more frustrated, that when he saw it. I door that hadn’t been there before. He stalked over to it, grabbing the door knob and then stopped. Was this really a good idea, he didn’t have any back up, and if this man was really a vampire like Severus thought, there was no telling how powerful he was, right? Him and McGonagall even made sure to have their meeting during the day, how powerful would a vampire have to be to no longer be affected by the sun?

Severus swallowed, no. He had to, Lucius was already under his thrall, and Minerva was too far. He had to do this now. Taking a deep breath he turned the door knob, shoving the door open and lifting his wand. 

He was not prepared for the nude man standing in front of a large window, head leaned all the way back as he basked in the moonlight streaming in from the window. Long curls brushing the back of his legs. Severus’ wand arm waved as the older man’s eyes opened and looked at him from the corner of his eye. He didn’t make any move to defend himself or even summon a robe as his head snapped back forward, now half turning to face Severus.

“Did no one teach you to knock as a child?” Ambrosius said, and it was like liquid sex to Severus.

***

Ambrosius was debating on whether not to risk taking a night flight out. He supposed most of the castle should be asleep by now, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t the one of two people that could possibly catch him. Well, he told himself, it was really now or never. So he stripped down and banished his clothes, untying his hair and letting it waft back down his back. He stood in front of the window, leaning his head back and enjoying the rays of moonlight before lifting his hand to open the double glass panes onto the balcony, but he froze up when he heard the door knob to his room start to turn. He closed his eyes and let out a long sigh, surely Lucius wasn’t coming back, he’d drained him for too much for that man to feel spry enough to come back to his room any time soon. He tried to think of someone else that would be stupid enough not to even knock before entering his private quarters, but came up empty handed. 

That was until he heard his door slam open, and the pitter patter of a heart beating so fast it just about exploded, slowly he inhaled and let his eyes slide open and fall to the side. The corner of his brow raised just a hair when he realized who it was, and he couldn’t help but speak the next words, “Did no one teach you to knock as a child?”

He watched as Severus’ outstretched wand hand wavered, lowering just a hair, with a half sigh Ambrosius waved his hand, and out came Severus’ wand from his fingertips, landing directly into Ambrosius’ hand with a soft fleshy thud.

“Now what had you planned on doing with this?” Ambrosius asked a very desperate looking Severus as he twirled the wand between his hands.

Severus’ face was bright red with what Ambrosius could only think was a mixture of blind rage and embarrassment. “I know what you did!” Severus finally managed to shout, “Filthy Vampire! I don’t know how you managed it but I won’t let you go any further with whatever plot you have!”

Ambrosius snorted, “Oh, no, someone save me from the potions professor,” he said in a monotone voice, “You’re not going to do much without this,” Ambrosius said as he waved the wand.

Severus growled and then raised an arm and pointed, “Legilimens!” he bellowed.

Ambrosius had to say he was caught off guard as he felt the spell hit him, he dropped the wand, suddenly fighting with the intruder in his mind. Severus was… better than he remembered, it took him time to throw Severus out, and he was sure he’d possibly seen something he shouldn’t have. “Good try, now, my turn,” Ambrosius said as Severus bent over, still recovering from being thrown back, “Legilimens!” 

Ambrosius found himself in a fountain of memories, far more than he could process, and then there was Snape, fighting him at every turn now within their minds. Soon, Ambrosius realized just how much of a waste this was, Severus just kept looping him in the same spot, sticking him in a maze of emotions. He pulled back, panting as he held a hand over his chest.

“You’re better than I gave you credit for,” Ambrosius said, panting as he watched the other man struggle to recover, “But you’re wrong, I’m not a vampire,” he panted, “I’m worse!” With that he felt his wings sprout from his back and in an instant he was in front of Severus, his hand at his throat as he lifted Severus off his feet, a low growl forming in his chest. 

At that moment Lucius appeared in the doorway, puffing like the rest of them. He looked between the two, wide eyed and worried, “I swear My Lord, I told him nothing!” Lucius tried to shout, but his voice cut out near the end. Ambrosius turned his attention to Lucius, a small frown forming on his face. “Lucius, you should be in bed. I knew I shouldn’t have let you leave,” he growled, as his hand tightened around Severus’ throat. “It doesn’t matter now Lucius, he attacked me.”

“You promised me Ambrosius!”

“He wasn’t part of the deal,” he snarled, he would have done it. Right then and there he might have killed Severus if the man he once knew in his past life didn’t flash to the front of his mind. Letting out another frustrated growl he glanced between Lucius and Severus, “Fine, but keep him in line Lucius,” he said and then dropped the younger wizard. He shrugged his shoulders as his wings smoothed back into skin. He stuck his hand out, summoning a robe from his bedroom and then pulling it on when it landed in his hand. 

Lucius went to Severus’ side, helping the coughing and sputtering man to his feet, “I know you are trying to help Severus, but I created this mess, and I must be the one that pays the price for it. Ambrosius here is only taking what is his,” Lucius said as he watched the monstrous man pace in front of the fireplace. “Please, don’t bring him into this,” Lucius said weakly as he finally got Severus to his feet.

“It’s quite a bit too late for that,” he replied quietly as he stopped pacing, “If he tells Minerva.”

Lucius shook his head, “He won’t. Not if you tell him the truth!” Lucius walked up to Ambrosius then, taking his hand in his and squeezing it, “I know I’ve asked too much already but Severus,” he paused to glance at the wide eyed man, “He’s important, just like the others. He can be useful!”

“I won’t help that thing!” Severus snapped.

“Severus! He’s not a thing, what has gotten into you! Is this all because of what happened with Charles?” Lucius asked, whirling to face Severus.

“Charles? He’s the one I’m replacing correct?” Ambrosius asked.

Lucius nodded, “He and Severus were on an errand, Charles had an idea on how to keep the Dark Lords out of Hogwarts, and possibly a way to destroy them both, but they were jumped,” he paused, “By vampires.”

Ambrosius let out a sigh and then went and sat down in his chair, leaning his head against the back and closing his tired eyes. It would seem that his night flight had been canceled. 

“May I have my wand back?” Severus asked.

Ambrosius opened his eyes, fixing Severus with his icy gaze.

“Depends, do you plan on throwing a couple more spells my way?” Ambrosius asked from his chair as Lucius let out the breath he’d been holding. The room was relaxing.

Severus growled, “No, I don’t.”

Ambrosius eyed him suspiciously but he looked like he was telling the truth, “Take Lucius to the bedroom first, he needs to rest. Then you may have your wand back,” he said.

Lucius shook his head, “I’m not going anywhere, not after seeing you like that. That was bordering on you losing control, and it's my fault. If I had just done what I promised that night you wouldn’t be having these issues. I’m staying right here,” he said firmly.

“Fine, but you have to promise to rest after,” Ambrosius said as he pulled Lucius into the chair with him and then summoned a blanket to cover them both. He tossed Severus back his wand, watching him like a hawk as Severus went to sit down in the other seat. There was a long pause of silence between the three men as all watched the fire churn, until Severus finally spoke again. “So does Narcissa know?” he asked.

Ambrosius’ brow rose, did Severus think he and Lucius… well, this current situation may be close but Lucius was Lucius. The man was attractive but... Ambrosius stopped himself as the comparison between this Lucius and the Lucius he’d known as Harry Potter really hit him. This Lucius wasn’t like the one he’d known. No, this one gave himself up for the Harry of this timeline; shielded Severus from his rage just moments ago. He glanced down at the way Lucius held onto his arm, about to speak but it was Lucius who spoke before him.

“Are you trying to suggest that I’m cheating on my wife?” Lucius’ eyes were cutting into Severus as he waited for his response.

Severus leaned back in his seat a bit, “So then what are you doing? Does he have you under some kind of thrall? I don’t understand why you’d fold to something like him,” his eyes darted to Ambrosius, “The way you are treating him,” he paused as he looked back at what Lucius said, “What is he to you? What did you mean when you said he was taking what was his?”

Ambrosius’ eyes turned to the fire as he felt his own guilt start to surface, but there wasn’t much he could do. Lucius had made the deal; taken advantage of a starving animal that couldn’t even form real thought at the time, and then never fed it when he’d promised too. “Do you really want to know?” Ambrosius decided to ask, glancing at Severus before looking back into the fire.

Severus bit his lip, he wanted answers yes, but this was also something Lucius was adamant that he stayed out of. But, then again, it might answer his own questions about who this man sitting before him really was. “Yes.”

“Very well,” Ambrosius said as he waved his hand and three cups of jasmine tea appeared, “Lucius and I have been,” he paused, “Acquainted for some time now, just a few years into his stay here at Hogwarts as a child.”

“He never mentioned you,” Severus said shortly, his hand tightening on his wand just a bit. “Ahh, but he did,” Ambrosius responded, pausing as Lucius nodded, and Severus could tell that whatever had happened, Lucius felt horribly guilty about, “My existence actually spread around the school like wildfire, Lucius might have even taken you to visit me once or twice; you maybe even made a wish or two at my feet,” Ambrosius started to explain.

“The mysterious statue hidden in the Forbidden woods,” Lucius explained as he tightened his grip on Ambrosius’ arm. Ambrosius could even hear both Severus’ and Lucius’ hearts start to beat faster.

“You see, I was stuck in a magical coma. Unable to interact with the surrounding world, starving, unable to hear, see or feel. I’m sure you can understand all that a starving animal will do for food,” Ambrosius started to explain, “and while I’m sure at first it was a joke; a neat trick to slap some blood onto a statue and get your wish granted but then something happened and Lucius never took anyone back after that, correct?” he asked. Lucius sat frozen on Ambrosius lap, but Severus nodded. “Did you ever wonder why?” he asked, “It's because Lucius realized that the statue could bleed, that it could be injured just like any other life form; that all this time he’d been feeding something he didn’t understand. He realized what he’d been doing all this time and really started to understand that this statue wasn’t just a normal enchanted statue. That he had been taking advantage of some odd creature stuck in an immobile state. Yet, when it got down to it Lucius made two more deals with this magical stone creature, and that is what has gotten us to where we are now,” he paused to watch Severus clench and unclench his wand. He was sure the man must be confused, “To save a friend from a monstrous werewolf, and then to save Harry Potter from death’s embrace the night his parents died. Lucius gave up his very life that night, yet once he realized what a staving monster meant he vanished. And surely a creature bound in stone can’t come to collect, he’d thought, yet here I am, and Lucius will be paying for it with the rest of his life,” he stopped and sipped his tea, “While you must think I’m a monster, I assure you I gave Lucius a choice in the matter, and this one was his best option.”

Severus was confused, and angry. Why hadn’t Lucius told him. “So you are a vampire,” Severus said quietly as he gripped his wand tight.

“Oh no,” Ambrosius said, “Like I said before, I’m something much worse,” he got up from his seat and stretched, letting Lucius take up the space he’d left, “You’ve been doing enough research I thought you would have put two and two together by now. We have met before after all, you’ve even fed me. Though, it wasn’t in the same way Lucius has,” he said as he made his way over to the balcony window.

Severus was frozen to his seat, “Your an Uthareal,” Severus whispered.

“Tsk, tsk, Severus,” he said as he pulled his arms behind his back and stared out at the starry moonlit night, “You can do better than that,” he paused to glance back at Severus and Lucius, who had already fallen asleep, “I am thee Uthareal, Severus. I know you’ve been having fun reading those journals you’ve found, but take a real good look at them,” Ambrosius said as he reached out a hand and started to trace a symbol onto the glass, “None of them ever actually mention a successful birth, do they? They just mention the offspring,” he continued to speak as Severus started to pull out his wand, stalking up behind Ambrosius, “Each journal is just one passing moment in my life time, one small look into a captive animal’s life, because surely that animal was just an animal. It couldn’t be on the same level as a wizard could, that’s just not possible,” he paused as he looked at his reflection in the window, he could see Severus standing behind him with his wand pointed directly as Ambrosius’ head, “Or is it Severus?” He could see the struggle in Severus’ eyes, in the subtle shake of Severus’ wand hand, “The story about my mates,” Ambrosius started to say, his eyes glancing away from the reflection and to his hands as he clenched and unclenched his hands, “About the founders, it wasn’t a lie. Those rumors aren’t rumors, I was there, and yet I couldn’t protect them,” he sucked in a breath before smashing his hand into the window, watching the grass crackle around his fist and the wave of comfort Hogwarts herself tried to offer him, “They took everything from me, so I did what was natural,” he licked his lips and stared into his reflection, the image of the man he’d used to be in that past life as Potter flashing in front of him for just a moment. He wasn’t Harry, these emotions were his from this life, his memories, “I destroyed them and everything they ever cared about in return.”

Severus lowered his wand. This was it, all the answers to every question he’d ever had about Le Fay. Yet, all he felt now was guilt. Here was this man that had gone through so much, and Severus had just dug it all up again. He knew what that felt like, his father hadn’t been a good man. He knew what it felt like to have someone go digging around in his past. He’d just been so focused on getting his answers, he didn’t think about the consequences. 

“So Severus, what will you do now? Technically, you have a wanted mass murderer in front of you, one that you believe is also abusing your friend,” Ambrosius said as he turned to face Severus, titling his head just a bit to the side.

“They wouldn’t dare,” Severus said slowly as he started to piece together a theory, “Not once they realized what I have.”

Ambrosius nodded and then turned back to the window, “You’re right, they wouldn’t,” he said with a short dark chuckle. “So what will you do? Now that you’ve figured it out; now that you know I’m a son of Death and Lady Magic herself.”

Severus swallowed and glanced back at the sleeping form of Lucius. Oh Lucius, Severus thought, what have you done to yourself this time? What mess did you step in? “I’d like to help Lucius, but I can’t do that on a healthy conscience until I know why you’re here, on this plane,” Severus said, slipping his wand back up his sleeve.

“Good choice,” Ambrosius said, “First, you have to promise that what we’ve said today won’t leave this room.” 

“Before that, does Lucius know?” Severus asked as he gazed at his sleeping friend.

Ambrosius nodded, “He knows more than you do honestly. While I might feed like a vampire, I’m not feeding on the blood like they do, I’m feeding on the magic. The soul. During that period there is nothing I could hide from him,” he admitted. He then motioned for Severus to step forward till they were only a few inches apart, “I’m sure you already know how to swear on your magic,” he said. 

Severus nodded, “I swear on my magic, nothing said here tonight will be repeated without Ambrosius M. LeFay’s permission,” and with that silvery threads formed around them, tightening for a moment before disappearing. 

Ambrosius smiled just slightly before it disappeared, “As for what I’m doing back, Lady Magic needs help,” he said with a grim expression and then motioned back toward their seats. He didn’t start speaking again till Severus was seated and he stood behind Lucius, running a hand gently through his hair, “Whatever these Dark Lords are up to is tearing her apart and upsetting the balance. If we don’t stop it then magic will vanish from this world,” he paused as he waved his hand slightly and floated his tea cup up into his hands, “and it will vanish forever. Along with all the wizards, and magical beasts here on this plane. It will drain everything, even those with so little that they aren’t considered magical.”

Severus was confused, “What do you mean?”

Ambrosius sighed, “Everything has a bit of magic in it, magic is what powers the soul, your soul is what houses your magical core. It’s just that not everyone had a large enough, or rather mature enough soul to house a magical core,” he paused, “It’s not that the soul can't, it's just not ready yet. That's what reincarnation is for.”

“So reincarnation is real, interesting.”

Ambrosius chucked, “It probably doesn’t quite happen like you think it would, but it is real. Lady Magic pulled me from the timeline I had been in, and dropped me back into this one when I died defending yo-,” he bit his tongue. Almost let it slip, bad wizard, he berated himself, “Anyways, I was booted out of this one for destroying a bunch of shit, and then brought back because I died, and she needed help to make sure this timeline didn’t turn out like the one I’d come from.”

Severus actually felt a bit hopeful, “So you’ve fought them before, you’ll know how to stop this event from occurring.”

“Well, yes and no, my previous timeline only had one Dark Lord, yours has two, but I do have an idea. I just need help to pull it off,” Ambrosius said, “Grindelwald's obviously one of them, so the other one must be trying to free him. I just need to figure out who that person is and challenge them to a duel. As long as Lucius is protected, and healthy enough to give me a boost I shouldn’t lose to anyone,” he paused and looked down at Lucius, “But, as you can see, he might not be enough. I need to find someone else. I’ve been dormant for the past almost millennia, I’m starving. What magic I did have seeped out over the years and into the forest.”

Severus frowned, “So you need someone just to feed off of?” he asked.

Ambrosius tilted his head from side to side, “It’s a bit more complicated than that. Because we are talking about feeding off souls, just like dementors do, so there are rules. It's not like a vampire who just gets to choose whoever or whatever blood type they like. First, they have to be willing donors, or a deal needs to be made beforehand. Second, they have to be compatible, Lucius would be an example, but a good term for it is a bonded mate or a soul mate. While it doesn’t have to mean someone romantically evolved, it does mean someone that's been reincarnated with you multiple times. Another version of some one compatible would be a twin flame, the second half to two twin souls. The Weasley twins are a good example, but they don’t necessarily have to be twins. They could be two lovers, but they are incredibly hard to find, and know for sure. Third, the last one, they have to commit the rest of their life to me. Lucius has already done so, and while it isn’t necessarily mean he can’t have other lovers, it does strain the bond we have, especially when I’m feeding,” he paused to untangle a part of Lucius’ hair, “Which, I believe is what happened with Lucius and I this last time.”

Severus watched the two closely, “Because of Narcissa?”

Ambrosius nodded, “Not just her, but his family. While Lucius is willing, he’s only really doing this for his family. He knows that if he doesn’t hold up his side of the bargain then my bloodlust would settle on Sirius and his child, the Potter boy. He doesn’t want their family affected by his mistakes.”

“Sirius and Harry?” Severus was confused.

“Yes, see, Sirius is the one who brought Harry to Lucius, he made the deal with Lucius to save Harry’s life. Lucius didn’t tell him what he’d given up, so Lucius is taking all of the blame, all of the bloodlust onto himself. He’s paying for two people,” Ambrosius explained with a grim expression.

“Can’t you, I don’t know, change it?” Severus asked, now feeling worried for his friend.

Ambrosius shook his head, a pang of guilt sounding in his heart, “No, I can’t, I-.” he was cut off by a hand being gently pressed to his mouth as Lucius yawned.

“He can’t change it because I’m the one that offered the deal Sev, and when I did offer it, I offered it to an only semi-aware individual. He really didn’t have a say in the deal, he just did what he had to to survive,” Lucius said, yawning again near the end.

“I didn’t realize you were awake,” Ambrosius said, chuckling.

“Only near the end, the chair can only do so much,” Lucius said as he went to stand, a little wobbly but he was able to readjust, “It’s really late, we should go to sleep,” Lucius added as he started to head for the bedroom. Ambrosius rolled his eyes.

“If you’d like to stay here Severus, there are blankets in the drawer of the tea table, otherwise the floo is available,” he said with a wave before following Lucius to the bedroom, “Should you really be walking?” he asked before lifting Lucius off his feet and carrying him the rest of the way. 

Severus couldn’t help but chuckle at the two. Even if Lucius had denied it, he could see something forming between the two. He actually found himself becoming a bit jealous, the way Ambrosius had looked when he’d stumbled into the room ready to kill him. The man was truly gorgeous, and those dead colored eyes? Severus had started to compare them more to the white silk pearls he’d given his mother as a birthday gift. With those just light hints of colors as you turned them in the light. Yes, perhaps those eyes weren’t as cold and distant as he’d thought.


	9. Hail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry learns some secrets by spying on his parents.

Harry finished reading the letter from Hermione and Ron, a not so pleasant look on his face. They hadn’t been told by the staff yet, but they had overheard McGonagall and Severus talking about the new Headmaster. As soon as they’d heard Le Fay’s name they had written to Harry and Harry didn’t know how to feel about it. He didn’t know anything about the man, and he didn’t know if he trusted someone so mysterious as Lord Le Fay in the position of Headmaster. He was sure Draco would approve because the man came off strongly as a Slytherin, and Draco liked that, but he wasn’t sure how he should feel about it. 

Dropping from the hammock he’d been using as his bed, he slipped into the hallway and started to tiptoe down to the library. He’d been doing this now for a few days, trying to gather more information since break had started, but so far he’d found nothing. It was almost like the library had been gutted since he’d started at Hogwarts. He didn’t dare ask Siri though, Lupin might have told him, but Siri had been really pushing his other father to be stricter with Harry. Especially with them thinking about having another child. Harry wasn’t so fond of the idea. Having a baby brother or sister? He’d seen what the Weasley family was like, and it was chaos.

He opened the library door slowly, only to freeze when he heard voices coming from within. He crouched low and then sprinted as quietly as he could to the nearest book shelf and hid behind it.

“This is unheard of! Letting a dark creature like that into Hogwarts of all things!” Siri snapped, and Harry could hear a book hitting either a wall or table. 

“Siri, you haven’t even met the man yet. Calm yourself,” a small pause and some huffing from Sirius, “Lucius assured us that Lord Le Fay is a good man,” Harry could make out Lupin’s soothing tones as he spoke. Becoming more curious he decided to stay there and listen in.

“I don’t care what Lucius said. I care about Harry! What if that man isn’t satisfied, what if he comes for Harry, or me?” Sirius shouted, throwing down the quill he’d been using to take notes. 

“Lucius told us not to worry about it, he’s taken full responsibility and Le Fay has accepted the compromise. I’ve been trying to tell you, Harry, and you, will be fine,” Lupin said as he sat down beside his husband, rubbing his shoulder, “It will be alright.”

“So I’m just supposed to let Lucius take all the responsibility?! Lu, that's not right and you know it. I agreed to that deal too! I was the one who asked Lucius to make it! I’m just as guilty as he is!” Sirius bellowed, slapping away Lupin’s hand and shooting up from his seat. “I told you what Lucius told me, the payment was our lives, our magic. Lucius can’t handle paying for two people Lu! It just isn’t right,” Sirius snarled at the fireplace. He stood there a long moment and started to feel his anger drain slowly, “I don’t regret the decision. If we hadn’t done what we did Harry wouldn’t-,” he had to stop as he felt his throat tighten, and within seconds Remus was behind him, arms wrapping around his torso and his face resting against Sirius’ shoulder.

“I know Siri,” Lupin squeezed him tight for a long moment, “I still think you should at least try talking to him instead of vilifying him. He saved both Harry’s and Severus’ lives after all.”

“But Lu, the things he asked for in return! He’s just as bad as one of those dementors! Taking people’s memories and magic like that. He’s not human Lu, I can’t help it. I don’t want anything that bloodthirsty near our son,” Sirius paused and turned in Remus’ arms to face him, “Even your wolf must be telling you just how bad of an idea this is.”

Remus squirmed a bit, he hated talking about his alter. “It is. But it also knows when to submit to power. Lord Le Fay, is ancient, and he owns Hogwarts Siri. Owns Hogwarts. There’s nothing we can do, so why not just see what kind of person he is before we do something drastic,” Remus suggested, placing a small kiss to Siri’s lips.

Sirius sighed and then hummed into the kiss. When Lupin pulled away he had a small scowl on his face but he nodded, “Fine, I’ll see what I can do,” he said. Remus gave him a small puppy eyed look and Sirius sighed, “Or I’ll ask you what you had planned. What was your idea Lu?”

Remus giggled and then let go of Remus, plopping down onto one of the seats and unfolding a few scrolls, “So I did some digging!”

Sirius’ brows rose, “And?”

“Well,” Remus said as he started to point out something on the scrolls, Sirius leaned over to look at the paper. They were family trees, only backwards, tracing back to the very foundations of most of the wizarding families.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, you want to invite him to Christmas dinner?!” Sirius' voice cracked.

Remus smiled sheepishly, “Well, he is technically family. I thought it would be a good way to start building connections. Don’t you want Harry to know where he comes from?” there was a pause and then Remus pulled Sirius’ hand to another name, “And see here!”

“Remus, why do you do this?” Sirius sighed. 

Remus frowned at him, “I didn’t have a family growing up. After being bitten I was an outcast. Is it really such an awful thing for me to want Harry to have a family? To know where he comes from? And it’s not like it’s only Harry’s family, it’s yours too,” Sirius tried to interrupt but Remus hushed him, “I know how you’ve been since Bella and Regulus’ disappearance, maybe this will give you a chance to reach out again.”

“With that thing!” Sirius hooted.

“You said you’d give him a chance!”

Harry’s eyes were wide as he listened into the conversation. Draco had been right, this Lord Le Fay, he was connected to his parent’s death in some way, and Sirius was livid with him. He wasn’t sure why he’d been referred to as inhuman but Harry could only guess that it had to do with whatever these deals were. And then the knowledge that this man could possibly take him from his family! Outrageous!

He had to get out of here and tell Draco. Slowly he started to slip towards the door, opening it just enough to start squeezing through when a floor board squeaked underneath him. He froze.

“Harry? Harry is that you!” came Lupin’s voice.

Harry cursed quietly, “Yes! I was looking for you two, I was, I was wanting to ask you if we could go into Hogsmeade or visit Diagon Alley so I could look for gifts for my friends!” Yes, great cover, he told himself. Harry walked toward them, a smile on his face when he finally came around the corner and saw the ugly Christmas sweaters. He started to laugh.

“What is suddenly so funny?” Sirius said, doing a little spin when he noticed Harry was laughing at the sweater, “Do you really think it looks that bad?” he asked, causing Harry to laugh even louder. “What about Lu’s? His is worse isn’t it,” Sirius whispered. Lupin caught that and smacked Sirius’ thigh. “Ouch Lu!”

“Don’t insult my sweater then!” Remus scowled and then smiled as he turned to Harry, “Actually Harry, we wanted to tell you something.”

“Lu!”

“It’s better to get it out now then surprise him later and hope he can cope!” Lupin chastised. Sirius sighed and crossed his arms over his chest, glaring down at Remus.

“Surprise me with what?” Harry asked curiously, he honestly liked surprised just as much as he liked puzzles.

“Well, we’ve decided to invite more than just the Malfoy’s this year. We’ve recently been in contact with a few distant relatives and decided it was time for you to meet them, so,” Remus said with a tentative smile, ‘We’ve decided to invite them.”

“Invite who?” Harry asked suspiciously.

Sirius coughed, clearing his throat roughly, “Lord and Lady Gaunt, you know them as your teachers at Hogwarts, Ms. McGonagall and Mr. Riddle. And then,” Sirius paused to lick his lips nervously and Lupin elbowed him, “And then Lord Le Fay,” he said finally, stuttering just enough that Harry could tell his father was nervous.

“What?!” Harry exclaimed, he couldn’t believe this. Hogwarts teachers were coming to his Christmas dinner?! He took a breath and closed his eyes for a long second, “Why?”

“Lu wants you to meet the rest of your extended family, or what’s left of them. They both belong to James' side of the family for the most part, so,” he paused to look down at Remus who gave him another puppy eyed look, “We decided that it would be good for you to meet them at least once. Get to know every part of where you come from.”

While Harry couldn’t argue about that, he did want to know more about the Potters, but he didn’t think this would be the way. Especially after what he’d just heard. This was going to be an interesting Christmas. He hid the grimace behind a tight smile, “Well, I guess that means I have even more reason to go shopping for gifts!” he said, trying to sound happy.

“That’s the spirit!” Lupin said with a big smile. He went and hugged Harry, pulling him up off the ground and spinning. “Diagon Alley here we come!”

***

Ambrosius stepped out of Gringotts, throwing the bag of coins up and down in his hand as he thought about the information he’d just exchanged with the goblins. This was turning out to be an interesting day. “So,” he mumbled to himself, “I’ve narrowed down our suspects to three people, and I’m not liking the possibilities.” He’d always known that the Albus of his time line had been creepy and just as much of a mad man as Voldemort had been but this? This was new. “I’ve got my work cut out for me that’s for sure,” he grumbled as he started down the street. He zig zagged down through the stores, picking up the few things he needed for his next set of experiments before he stopped at Madam Malkin’s robes. He paused at the window, a small smile forming across his face. Inside was him, or at least the younger version of him, and not only him but all three of them were there; Sirius, Lupin and Harry. It made his chest hurt. Oh how he missed those two, he raised a hand to the window and then stopped himself, his smile turning into a frown. No, he couldn’t. That wasn’t his Sirius, that wasn’t his Lupin. No these two belonged to his younger self, they belonged to the real Harry. He smiled again, forgetting for just a moment when he noticed the fun they were having, the laughter. He almost choked when Sirius leaned in and kissed Remus’ cheek. He thumped his chest with his hand to clear his airway, gasping a bit when he finally got a breath in. 

Well, he thought to himself, that was new. Then again, he thought for a long moment, the Order didn’t exist in this timeline, and Sirius hadn’t died. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. It had taken Remus a while to get over Sirius’ death, even with Tonks there, and Sirius had never been to Azkaban in this timeline either, the two men had so much time to explore themselves. That thought made him smile, and he almost didn’t catch how Sirius and Remus reacted when they spotted him in the window. What really did it was Ambrosius’ ability to read lips, and he was sure Sirius had just called him a monster. Both men were looking at him with pale faces, and it took a moment for Ambrosius to realize why; they thought he was there to collect. Panic and fear was a scent Ambrosius knew well since he’d come into this new life. His heightened senses picked up the smallest changes in his surroundings, and smell was one of them.

Letting out a sigh he collected and readied himself, stealing his expression as he walked into the store. He gave a nod to the clerk as he passed by and then went to the section of dress robes, scanning them without any real interest. He kept his eye on the couple as they whispered back and forth for a moment, surprised when they started to approach him with young Harry in tow. This would be interesting, he could already hear their hearts beating away rapidly. What he didn’t like was the fact that even Harry seemed to be afraid of him, if the scent he was giving off was any indication. He wondered what he could have done to scare the boy. 

Remus and Sirius shared one more glance between them before deciding to go and greet the source of their current panic. Sirius kept Harry behind them, but made sure he came a long nonetheless. He didn’t want their son thinking it was okay to disrespect other wizards by ignoring them. “Lord Le Fay, it’s a pleasure. I heard you will be taking over the Headmaster position at Hogwarts?” Remus said, sticking out a hand to the golden man. Ambrosius blinked his dead eyes slowly, causing Remus to swallow thickly, before taking Remus’ hand.

“And I you,” Ambrosius said smoothly, an air of mild interest surrounding him, “Though, I’m unfamiliar, do I know you?”

Remus froze, didn’t know. Didn’t know? He exchanged a small glance with Sirius and knew he wouldn’t get a word out of the man. Sirius was already too overwhelmed and even Remus could smell the fear pouring off his mate. “I am Remus Lupin, this is my husband Sirius Black, and this is our son,” Remus said, gesturing for Harry to come out from behind him, “Harry James Potter-Black,” Remus smiled politely. He watched as the dead eyes changed, and he grimaced when they turned to look at Sirius and then Potter.

“Oh! I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. Lucius has told me much about you three. I’m happy to serve your son as the new Headmaster,” Ambrosius said as a smile spread across his face. He leaned down till he was face to face with Harry, and Harry suddenly felt the need to run. Run, and run, and then keep running as he looked into those dead eyes. “Mostly about you Mr. Potter-Black,” he added.

Harry felt all the hair on the back of his neck stand end to end and he scooted just a step back into Sirius and Remus. He felt the hands of both his fathers tighten on his shoulders and then smiled back politely at Ambrosius. 

“Harry is quite special, isn’t he Remus, doing very well at the head of his class already isn’t he?” Sirius said, glancing at his husband with worried eyes.

Harry’s eyes didn’t look away from Ambrosius for even a second, not even to blink, and yet, when he heard Sirius speak, he noticed something odd. Just for a second, Lord Le Fay’s face changed. He could have sworn it did. The lips became tight, and his eyes softened. He wasn’t sure, but he actually thought Le Fay looked sad, maybe even lonely and a bit jealous, but it was also gone as fast as it had come and Lord Le Fay was straightening back into a standing position. Harry honestly wanted to say something, to take his hand and comfort the man but the tight grip of his fathers didn’t give him much room. Besides, it could have been just a mistake or trick of the light.

“Yes, honestly, he’s surprised the both of us,” Remus said.

“Is that so? Well, it would seem that he’ll have little need of me at Hogwarts,” Ambrosius said with a smile; hiding away his pain. “As for our deal Sirius,” Sirius froze, eyes suddenly glued to Lord Le Fay’s face, “You will not have to worry about a thing. Lucius has already explained everything and has taken full responsibility for the mistake. You will not have to pay a dime, it’s been all taken care of,” Ambrosius explained.

Sirius was shook, wide eyes as he listened to this man. He seemed so... unbothered by Sirius' lack of commitment to their deal. “But Lucius, surely he can’t pay all of it, that’s too much!” Sirius said, his grip tightening on Harry’s shoulder. 

Ambrosius brow rose, “I didn’t realize you cared so much,” he said, with a tone of surprise that Harry did catch. Why would he be surprised? The Blacks and the Malfoys had been close for years, even before he could remember. 

Remus lifted his hand from Harry’s shoulder and then set it down on Sirius’ bicep. “What my husband means is that Lucius shouldn’t be paying for it by himself. It’s too much, and we feel like we need to take responsibility for our mistakes as well,” Lupin said, in a much calmer voice than Sirius could manage right now.

Ambrosius looked at them both for a long moment before looking down at Harry, “I’m sorry but it’s already too late,” he said and then looked up at the other two men. He felt the guilt again, but there really was nothing he could do, “The vow has already been made, I gave Lucius a choice, and he chose to protect his family. I suggest you do the same,” Ambrosius said, watching as the two men slumped just a bit, “Now, I should bid you good day, I must be going.” 

Ambrosius turned to leave, only getting a few steps before he felt a tug on his robe. He turned, thinking it was just caught on something when he found himself looked down into bright green eyes. “Mr. Le Fay, would you like to join us for Christmas dinner?” Harry asked. Ambrosius was completely taken off guard, and at a complete loss of words. He looked up, tilting his head and about to ask when Sirius piped up.

“Yes, would you?” Sirius asked, glancing down at his son with a bit of curiosity, “We were going to send you a formal invitation but it seems Harry has gotten a bit ahead of himself,” he added.

Ambrosius looked back down at Harry, “And what spurred this delightful offer?” he asked, still looking down at the younger version of himself.

“Well,” Lupin said, “We actually did some digging and realized your one of the few people on Harry’s side of the family. We thought it would be a good idea to have you two spend some time together.”

“Is that so,” Ambrosius drawled, eyes still on his younger self, “Well Harry, what do you think?” he asked.

In that moment, Harry was sure what he’d seen wasn’t a mistake. Those dull dead eyes looked down at him with such loneliness, he’d only seen one other being look that lonely, look that sad, that broken. Only one. With a big smile Harry nodded sharply, “You should come!” Harry said loudly.

Ambrosius had decided to stay away from Harry, give him the life he’d never had with Sirius, but now it seemed he was being pulled in. Warmth started to spread through his body, and he smiled the first real smile he’d done in years. “Then I will graciously accept your offer,” he said with a slight head nod before vanishing out the door.


	10. The Storm Arrives Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas Dinner

The next few days at the Grimmauld place had been interesting to say the least. After having written to all his friends he was getting questions left and right from Ron and Hermione, all asking about what Lord Le Fay was like. He told them what he could about the experience at the robe shop, and what he had overheard in the Library. Understandably, they were concerned, but Harry assured them that his fathers seemed to have taken care of it, and then he’d go over it in more depth with Draco. Especially since his father had been mentioned. He exchanged the bit of information he’d gathered on Flamel’s and Charles’ ties together and they all ended up agreeing that what was being guarded under ‘Fluffy’ had to have been the Philosopher's Stone. Their next move was wondering if they should tell the staff that something or someone was trying to get it, or if they should get it themselves before whoever it was could. Obviously it wasn’t safe in its current location. The last bit of his letter was about the journals. He’d only gotten a bit of the way into Slazar’s journal since he’d been here, and now he’d have to stop with Christmas Eve approaching. The Malfoy’s would come today, and then tomorrow, on Christmas Eve dinner would take place and the Gaunts and Le Fay would arrive. 

Hermione told him not to worry, that with that many people there, even if Le Fay wanted to take him he couldn’t. Then she also noted that her and Ron’s journals had been dead ends. They still couldn’t crack whatever language they were in. Harry said he’d see what he could do.

Harry’s head shot up from the newest letter as he heard the door down stairs open, and the all too familiar voices of Malfoy’s family. He jumped from his seat and rushed down the stairs, jumping at Draco and landing in his arms. They hugged for a long moment before Harry helped with everyone’s coats. Harry looked around, frowning for a moment.

“Where’s Uncle Lucius?” Harry asked, his green eyes turning to his Aunt. Narcissa seemed to freeze up for a moment, and Harry could tell she was upset about something.

“Lord Malfoy will be joining us later, he had some last minute business to attend to,” she said with a tight smile. She glanced at Draco and then motioned to their luggage, “Harry, how about you help Draco with our things. I’m sure your fathers already have our rooms set up,” she said. Harry nodded quickly and grabbed a couple bags and started hoping up the stairs, Draco followed just as quickly. As they finished putting his mother’s things down and started heading to Draco’s room he couldn’t help but ask, “What's going on with your mum?” 

Draco’s walk slowed and he frowned, “It’s Father. She and him had a fight about two weeks ago and it’s been like this ever since,” he paused as they entered his room for the holidays, “I think it had to do with Lord Le Fay. Father’s been getting more and more of those letters, each time Mother gets worse,” he plopped down onto his bed, a worried look on his face that Harry didn’t like.

“Have you talked to either of them?” Harry asked.

Draco shook his head, “I’m too afraid. It’s not like them to fight like this, and stay upset. What if it’s that time? What if they are finally going through with it Harry?”

Harry bit his lip, “You’re talking about the divorce aren’t you.”

Draco nodded again and then relaxed and leaned against his best friend, resting his head on Harry’s shoulder, “I know they don’t really love each other, but the last time they brought it up it got really ugly between them, and I don’t want to have to choose.”

Harry wrapped an arm around Draco and squeezed him, “I understand. I don’t think I could choose either.” Harry rocked Draco for a while, hoping to sooth his friend until Sirius called them down for dinner.

They both headed down, seeming to have forgotten their conversation and pushed each other till they finally got down to the dining room. Everyone else seemed to be there, but Lucius. Harry could tell Draco was disappointed but as dinner was placed out onto the table everything changed. 

“So Draco, how’s school so far?” Sirius asked.

“It’s great! Has Harry told you about Hermione and Ron yet?” Draco asked, “I honestly wasn’t so sure about them, but they are growing on me,” Draco admitted, making Sirius laugh.

“He’s told me a bit about them, but I heard you two had made a few other friends too,” Sirius noted, pointing at the two of them with his fork for just a moment.

“Oh! You mean Neville, he’s okay. He’s a Gryffindor, but he’s pretty shy for a Gryffindor. I haven’t spent much time with him. Oh, then there’s Luna, she’s pretty cool. She’s a Ravenclaw like Hermione,” Draco paused to eat some food and take a drink, “Then there's also the Weasley twins.” Harry started blushing as soon as the older boys were mentioned. “They are in Slytherin just like us, the first of their family. Those two are hilarious, they love pulling pranks, but they are also super helpful. Especially in stuff like potions; they actually helped Harry get rid of some love spelled chocolates.”

“They did, did they?” Narcissa said, her eyes flicking between the two, “Why didn’t you tell me or you father?” she asked, scowling at the two.

“It wasn’t that bad Ms. Malfoy, Severus handled it after the twins turned over the chocolates they’d found,” Harry said with a thick blush covering his face.

Sirius chuckled, “I see Severus is handling teaching well. That’s good, I honestly wasn’t so sure if he’d be fit for teaching.”

Narcissa glanced at him, “Oh, and why would that be Siri?”

Sirius swallowed, “Well, I just didn’t see him getting along with kids all that much, “ he paused to glance over at Lupin, “Speaking of which, did you invite him?”

Remus sighed, “Yes, but he declined, just like he does every year.”

“He really needs to get out more,” Sirius said, complaining.

Narcissa had to agree, being at Hogwarts twenty-four seven couldn’t be good for the man. “Charles’ death hit him hard,” she said quietly, and silence settled around them. The rest of dinner was just as quiet, a few jokes tossed around, but both Narcissa were busy glancing at the chair Malfoy usually sat in. Even Sirius and Lupin were starting to worry.

“Where is your husband Sissi?” Sirius finally asked, “He’s not usually this late.”

Narcissa’s head shot up from her food, and she seemed to stutter for a moment, “He told me that he might miss tonight’s dinner, but he’d be here tomorrow,” she paused and licked her lips before sharing a look with Sirius and Lupin, “He’s currently with Lord Le Fay.”

Draco felt the air in the room suddenly become cold, and he looked between all the adults, confused on why they all suddenly seemed to be frozen to the spot, or way too interested in their food.

“Boys, if you're done with your food, how about you go play while there’s still a bit of light out,” Remus said. Harry and Draco both nodded and jumped from their seats, heading out of the room as the doors closed behind them. Harry started to head towards the doors to the yard when he was stopped by Draco. “Don’t you want to know what they are talking about?” Draco asked.

Harry winced, he should have seen this coming. “Are you sure Draco?” he asked quietly. Draco nodded and then led Harry up to the second floor landing, and from there they lowered and extending ear the twins had loaned them.

“Before you start asking, I want to say that I in no way blame you or your son. Lucius did what Lucius does,” Narcissa said, “You and Lucius did what had to be done, and I don’t regret it. Saving Harry was what I would have done too.”

“I know you would have Sissi, but that doesn’t mean it hurts me any less,” Sirius said with an audible sigh, “Lucius knew what would happen, and I wish he would have told me sooner. I don’t like this idea of him paying for all of it.”

Draco heard his mother sigh, “It’s not just the deal Siri. Me and Lucius, we’ve been sitting on this edge for years now, you know that. We swore that we’d stay together for Draco, at least till he was older, but Siri, Lu,” she paused, “You should see the way that he talks about him.”

Both Sirius and Lupin sat back in their seats, stunned when they looked at Narcissa. She wasn’t angry, she was upset yes, but the look on her face right now. That was guilt. “Siri, they way he talks about that man, it’s like he’s back at Hogwarts pursuing politics for the first time again.”

“And you’re sure it’s not a charm of some kind, a thrall perhaps?” Sirius asked, concerned.

Draco and Harry exchanged looks, a thrall? That was a vampire term.

“No! For gods sakes no, never. I know what that looks like. This is pure. Sure he’s terrified of the man, that much is obvious, but he still admires him. To put it in his own words when I confronted him, ‘He is like that crisp foggy morning that calls to you to leave the safety of your home. He is that wolf that you are tempted to follow into the woods.”

Sirius snorted, “Sound like he’s gone mad Sissi.”

This time it was Remus that spoke up, “Mad, or falling in love?” The room went quiet for a long moment before there was the sound of scraping chairs. “Sissi, I didn’t mean-.”

“No! No. You’re right Lu, and,” she paused and Harry could hear the clap of her shoes as he imagined her pacing beside the table, “And who am I to keep him from that,” she said, “Our marriage was something planned out for us by our parents. Sure we cared for each other but we never loved each other. It doesn’t feel right for me to stand in the way of his happiness, least not for a second time.”

There was a large sigh from all those in the room. “Sissi,” Sirius started to say and then stopped. There was another long moment of silence and Harry could only guess that his fathers were trying to comfort her.

“Have you told Draco?” Remus asked quietly.

“No, I planned on waiting till after Christmas.”

Sirius groaned, “That might be a bit difficult,” he said.

“Why? Wait,” another pause, “You can’t be serious,” Narcissa said.

“He’s part of Harry’s family Sissi. It felt wrong not too. The Gaunts are coming too,” Remus stated.

“The Gaunts?” Narcissa said with a surprised tone.

“Minerva and Tom, Tom is Harry’s uncle. Le Fay is great-great-great-whatever grandfather,” Lupin said.

Narcissa inhaled sharply, “Oh. I see. I’m guessing on the Potter’s side?”

“Technically both but it's more direct on the Potter side,” Sirius said.

Narcissa was surprised again, “So, you and me. We are related to Le Fay as well?” she questioned.

“Distant cousins but yes,” Sirius said.

Harry and Draco were both shocked. Who was Le Fay not related to at this point?!

“Well, I guess I’ll have to meet him face to face. Even if my husband doesn’t end up fucking him I’ll have to meet him eventually it would seem,” she said with a snort.

“Sissi!” Remus said, completely shocked, “I have never.”

“And you probably won’t again,” she said, “Well. I’m not sure what to do then. This will be one awkward Christmas then,” she decided. Everyone agreed, even Harry and Draco.

***

Tom arrived just a bit before Ambrosius did, the three of them standing out in the street and waiting for their hosts. “Tom, Minerva,” Ambrosius said, giving them a slight bow. Tom and Minerva both greeted him in kind.

“I didn’t realize you would be attending as well,” Tom said.

“Yes, well. I hadn’t but then the boy invited me. Stopped me from leaving the store I was in actually,” Ambrosius said with a small smile as he remembered the exchange.

“So you’ve met Harry!” Tom sounded excited, “How’d it go?”

Ambrosius tilted his head side to side, “It went alright. It seems Lupin found out I was related to the squirt and planned on inviting me formally. Had it just been that I would have refused, but Harry,” he paused when Minerva gave him a questionable look, “Well, who could say no to that adorable face.”

“I see, you’re family then,” Minerva said, “Just like my Tom.”

It was Ambrosius’ turn to raise his brow, “Has Tom not told you?”

“Told me what?” she asked.

“Minerva my sweet, Lord Le Fay here is me and Harry’s great grandfather of sorts,” Tom finally said, causing Minerva’s eyes to bulge, “I had planned to tell you, just not until you felt more at ease with his appearance at Hogwarts.”

Minerva was blinking rapidly, “That’s why you’ve been spending so much time with him. Oh Tom, I’m so sorry. And to you Lord Le Fay, if I had realized.”

Ambrosius chuckled, “You have nothing to apologize for Minerva. It was something we had agreed on, I just thought he would have told you after the board put me into the Headmaster’s position.”

Minerva was so embarrassed, she had treated Le Fay with such distaste these last few months. And he was family! Oh, she felt awful, and Ambrosius could tell.

“Well, now that we have that out of the way, is Lucius joining you?” Tom asked.

Ambrosius went ridged for just a second, “Actually, he should already be here with the rest of his family.”

Tom’s brows rose, “I see.”

Minerva glanced between both of them, sharing a glance with Tom but he only whispered to her that he’d talk to her about it later. Just then the doors opened and Sirius was greeting them.

“I’m glad you all could make it, do please come in, make yourselves at home,” Severus said.

Ambrosius was the last to enter, and as soon as he stepped in through the threshold Kreacher appeared. Before Ambrosius could speak, the house-elf was bowing deeply, “Welcome home My Lord.” Black froze.

The front room froze as those that had been coming down the stairs heard the elf as well. 

“Kreacher,” Sirius’ tone was unpleasant. 

Ambrosius looked down at the poor, confused elf. He felt that pang of guilt again but kept his mouth firmly shut. 

“Yes my master?” Kreacher croaked, glaring up at Sirius. 

“You will explain this instant,” Sirius growled. 

Seeing how angry Sirius was already becoming Ambrosius decided he would have to intervene before the Black hexed the poor creature. “Mr. Black, allow me if I would. Kreacher here was just doing his best to adhere to his duties,” Ambrosius said with a long sigh, he glanced down at the house-elf that was eyeing him warily, “Since Regulus disappeared and you were disowned, the Lordship feel to the next Head of Household.” 

Sirius dropped the luggage he’d been carrying, a small shake forming his hand, “Wh-how?” he asked, while Lupin rushed to his mate’s side. “Harry is supposed to be heir, even with my removal. Regulus made sure it would go to Harry!” Black started to yell, fists at his side.

Ambrosius inhaled slowly, fighting to keep his nerves calm, “And it will be as soon as he turns seventeen, along with the Potter, and Peverell Lordships, I’m currently just acting as his Proxy till he comes of age.”

Remus choked, “Three Lordships?”

Sirius was stunned into silence, and Harry was on the stairs with the rest of the Malfoys. He was going to be a Lord, like Lucius and Le Fay? He suddenly felt a bit dizzy.

“Yes,” Ambrosius said, his dead eyes scanning the room till they fell on Harry, “He will be able to claim all three,” he said slowly, watching as Harry’s green eyes darted up to his. He turned his gaze back to Sirius and Remus, “Perhaps we should discuss this later, I’m sure the Gaunts would like to put their stuff away in their room, and I would like to rest before dinner. My age is catching up to me,” he said, casting a quick glance at Lucius who stiffened beside his wife.

Sirius shook himself out of his stupor, “Oh, of course, right this way. Kreacher, attend to their things.” The house-elf nodded and started to collect things and carry them upstairs. 

Harry and Draco watched them pass, exchanging a look and then darted the rest of the way down the stairs. He’d been right, this Christmas was going to be interesting.

***

Ambrosius set his things down in his room, and took a quick look around. He was surprised when he realized just what room he was in. This had been Regulus’ room once upon a time, at first he couldn’t tell but then he spotted just a few cursed objects still in the room that he recognized almost instantly. The Slytherin locket he’d remembered from his old timeline stood proudly on a necklace stand on the side of a black vanity, twinkling in the sunlight streaming through the window. Curious he made his way over to it, waving a hand over it with his wand in hand to scan it. He let out a sigh when no magic horcrux appeared on the scan, however it was still cursed, though, upon further inspection it was only a curse activated for someone unrelated to the Slytherin line. More curious now, he reached out a hand and stroked the front of it, feeling the magic probe his own before wrapping around his finger in almost a gentle hold. It would seem he’d passed the test. He went to pick it up, stopped only by a sudden knock at the door. He half turned to face the door, “You may enter,” he said softly. Ambrosius wasn’t too surprised when Sirius stuck his head in, glancing around for a moment and then opened the door wider. He looked slightly disappointed, and it amused Ambr.

“I wanted to warn you, the only room we thought suitable was Reg’s old room, and it still has a few of his things,” Sirius said, his eyes going to the locket. “Some of it is cursed, and I mean very cursed, especially that,” he said, motioning to the locket. Ambrosius glanced at it, tilting his head as he picked up the locket with his wand hand, causing Sirius to pale for a moment.

“I see nothing wrong with the locket,” he said as he turned his gaze back to Sirius, he was about to say something else when a wave of nausea hit him and he had to slam his free hand down onto the vanity. Wave after wave of emotion hit him as another memory emerged from his brain’s foggy depths.

_‘Salazar you look wonderful!’_

_‘I’d hope so, it is the snake’s birthday after all!’_

_Ambrosius looked around the room, taking in the laughter of the room. He stepped up to Salazar and held out a box, ‘Here, I got you something.’_

_‘Oh Ambr, you shouldn’t have! Oh, let me turn around so you can put it on!’ Sal said, smiling at Ambrosius._

_Ambrosius chuckled and then nodded, watching Sal turn and lift his hair up and out of the way. He stepped close, smiling as he enjoyed the crisp dewy sent of his love. He set the necklace down around him and then clasped it together. ‘There, all done. How do you like it?’_

_Salazar was brimming with joy, ‘I love it.’_

_‘Oh Sal it’s beautiful!’ Rowena said, ‘Why don’t you ever get me anything like that Godric!’_

_‘I’m not the one that gives expensive gifts like that and you know it!’ Godric laughed, ‘I’m sure Ambr will get you something just as nice when your birthday rolls around, won’t you,’ he said as he elbowed Ambrosius._

_Ambrosius chuckled, ‘I’ll spare no expense. All of you deserve the best. To Sal!’ he said with a big smile and raised his glass._

_‘To Sal!’_

Ambrosius was pulled out of the memory by Sirius calling his name. He blinked his eyes open and closed slowly, still feeling the after effects of dizziness and nausea. When his vision finally focused he found himself surrounded by three people. 

“Le Fay, are you okay?” Lucius said, speaking first as he helped Ambrosius to a sitting position.

“I’m fine,” Ambrosius growled.

“I doubt that,” Narcissa said aggressively as she glanced at her very worried husband, “Sirius said you were standing one second, grabbed a cursed object, and then were down the second. How could you be so reckless! And you’re still holding it!” 

She went to pull it from his hand but Ambrosius snapped at her, “You will not touch it!” he snarled. All three wizards froze for a long moment, glancing around worriedly. Ambrosius took in a deep inhale and then sighed, “It wasn’t the locket that caused the incident. This happens often,” he finally said, “I apologize Lady Malfoy, I didn’t mean to be so rude,” he paused and licked his lips slowly as he opened his fist, revealing the locket in his hand. The golden locket and emerald green stones seemed to glow in his hand. “Sirius, do you know where your brother got this from?” he asked.

Sirius sat back on his heels, a little less worried. He didn’t like the man, but he didn’t want to deal with someone's dead body in his house. Least not at this moment, “Some pawn shop from a collector. Why?” he asked curiously.

Ambrosius looked down at the locket fondly and opened it. Inside was blank, and his heart broke a little. The pawn shop owner must have removed what was inside. “This locket used to be Salazar Slytherin’s locket. It was a birthday gift,” he said softly as he closed the locket. The room was quiet for a long moment.

“I’d heard that you four were a thing, but I honestly didn’t believe it,” Sirius murmured. 

Ambrosius ignored the comment and went to stand, quickly aided by both Narcissa and Lucius. Sirius was glancing around the room, looking guilty, “There isn’t anything else in the room that belongs to you is there?” Sirius asked.

Ambrosius coughed, laying a shaky hand on his chest, “Honestly I wouldn’t know. I didn’t remember the locket till I picked it up.”

Narcissa frowned, “You didn’t recognize it right away?”

“Well, yes, but not,” he paused and then looked away from the three of them as he placed the locket down.

“Ambrosius can’t remember a lot of his past, it comes in waves. The ones surrounding his mates are the foggiest, and the worst. When any of them are triggered he gets anything from a mild headache, to what I’m guessing just occurred, one of his fainting spells,” Lucius said.

“Lucius,” Ambrosius warned as he turned away from the three wizards and focused on his reflection in the mirror. 

“No, just no. Narcissa is a great healer, let her help you!” Lucius practically begged. Both Narcissa and Sirius were looking between each other with a bit of worry. “I can’t keep sitting by and watching without doing anything,” he went to reach out for Ambrosius’ arm but he caught sight of the eyes reflected in the mirror and stopped.

Narcissa let out a huff, “Well, I for one can’t let family go untreated, Lucius, are you saying this happens every time he remembers something?”

“Yes,” he said quickly.

Ambrosius growled low as his hands tightened on the vanity.

“Perhaps a memory charm is the culprit, perhaps a failed oblivation?” Narcissa suggested, starting to pull out her wand.

Ambrosius could feel his anger building. “Has it occurred to anyone here, that I don’t want to remember?!” he finally bellowed, causing everyone in the room to stop talking. He could feel Lucius gaze on him, and he felt just a bit of guilt, but more so he just felt angry. Angry and some deep pain rooted at something he truly didn’t want to remember. 

“You can’t run-.” Narcissa was cut off by Sirius as he put an arm out between her and Ambrosius. He shook his head, earning a glare from Narcissa but she turned on her heel and left. Ambr was surprised and glanced up at Sirius, seeing something in the Black’s eyes he hadn’t expected to see; understanding. Ambr let his head drop just a bit, “Thank you Sirius,” he said quietly as his gaze turned back to the locket. 

“You’re welcome,” Sirius returned quietly, he looked up from Ambrosius and jerked his head towards the door, “Come on Lucius, I’m sure there will be more conversation down stairs.”

“Actually I would like-.”

“No,” Ambrosius said with a sigh, not even risking a glance at Lucius, “No, I’ll be fine. Go have fun with your family. I’m sure I’ll be down momentarily,” he said softly.

Lucius seemed torn, he wanted to stay and comfort the man, but he also wanted to be with his son. With a sigh he nodded and headed out the door, followed closely behind by Sirius. Siri paused at the door after Lucius left, with his hand on the door knob. With a inhale he started to speak, “I know what it’s like to lose someone close. I understand not wanting to remember and how painful it must be,” he paused when he heard a small snort, “If you want to talk. I’m here,” Sirius said.

Ambrosius looked back up at his reflection in the mirror, seeing Black at the door with his back turned. “I will think about the offer,” he said. He watched as Sirius nodded and then headed out the door. Ambrosius was finally left alone with his thoughts, and with a quick wand wave he dimmed the lights, grabbing the locket and heading over to the bed. He could feel the stinging in his eyes as tears began to form, rolling down his face and landing on the golden surface. His lip started to quiver and he could feel the overwhelming sadness start to take him. One one hand, he couldn’t understand the full complexity of why he felt this way, and on the other he knew it all too well. This sadness, this loneliness. He’d felt it as Harry every night he’d spent at the Dursley’s, he knew it when he thought the man he’d come to admire was a traitor, and now, somewhere in the back of his head he knew it as a lover. One that was hellbent on destroying everything in his wake just to feel something again.

No, he would rather stay like this. His memories as Ambrosius were more than he could handle on his own. Even a life as Harry Potter hadn’t prepared him for the horrors this body had endured; what these eyes had seen. Ambrosius let himself fall to his side, cradling the locket in his hands as he closed his eyes, a small nap. Just a small one.

Harry and Draco were down stairs, playing a game of chess when the three adults finally made their way downstairs. Harry took note of just how tired they all looked, especially Draco’s dad. Soon however, the room was filled with conversation as Tom and Minerva started to discuss with the other adults their plans for the new year. It left most of Harry and Draco out of the conversations but they were able to get a bit in about school and what they wanted to do or try next year. Hours passed and no one had yet to see Le Fay. Even Draco could tell that something was off with the energy of the house. Finally Harry jumped up, “I’m going to grab some toys to bring down!”

Sirius glanced over at him and Draco, stopping mid conversation with Minerva, “Oh, yes, sure. Just don’t make a mess,” Sirius said.

Harry nodded and then grabbed Draco’s arm and headed upstairs.

“Toys? Really? We have plenty right now,” Draco said, a little salty that he was being dragged upstairs.

Harry rolled his eyes, “I want to check on Lord Le Fay,” Harry said as they made their way down the hall. Draco eyed Harry for a moment and then let the boy drag him along. 

“Have I ever told you just how insane you can be when it comes to stuff like this?” Draco asked Harry.

Harry laughed, “Once or twice,” he then said quietly as they arrived at the room. He glanced over at Draco for a moment. Slowly he reached up to the door knob and turned it slowly, pushing it open slowly the two of them peaked in, surprised when they couldn’t see anyone inside. Slowly they stepped inside and glanced around the room.

“Harry, I don’t think we should be in here,” Draco whispered. Harry turned to hush him just as they both heard something creak on the other side of the room. Dead eyes watched them from the darkness of the other side of the room. He had heard the two boys as soon as they’d touched the door, and now he hid in the corner, wings wrapped around himself. He had been planning to go for a night flight with some notice me not charms before dinner, but then he’d been interrupted by these two children. Still, he watched with amusement as the two started to look around his room. 

“Harry!” Draco whispered a bit louder as the other teen ventured farther into the room. Draco stayed closer to the wall, and Ambrosius was sure it was because Draco could feel him watching them. “Harry, be careful!”

Ambrosius chuckled darkly to himself as he watched his younger self poke at a few of his things.

“Woah, Draco come look at this, is this his wand?” Harry said as he looked at the wand that lay on the vanity. It was, or at least Harry guessed it was, about 15 inches, with small little knots periodically down the length of it. It was a darker grey with some white tones mixed in, and near the handle was some strange runes Harry didn’t recognize. “Draco, this wand is wicked cool!” Harry said again and waved Draco over. Draco, tempted by his words, went ahead and came over, his own eyes widening as he took in the sight of the wand.

“That thing looks epic! I wonder what it’s made out of, and who made it,” Draco whispered. The two of them continued gawking over the wand before another creak of the floorboards spooked both boys and they ran back to the door. Draco ran through, motioning for Harry to follow, but Harry was frozen to the spot. In the darkest corner of the room, Harry could just make out two glowing eyes wrapped in leathery wings. His heart jumped up his throat and he started to panic, but then a finger lifted to the man’s lips and Harry could have sworn he heard the man speaking right next to him. With a little jolt of extra adrenaline he sprinted out of the room, slamming the door closed behind him. 

“And what might you two be doing?” Lucius asked as he watched Draco and Harry sprint down the hall past him. “Weren’t you getting toys?” he said and motioned to their empty hands. 

“Ah, couldn’t decide on any,” Harry said quickly before continuing down the stairs with Draco right behind him. 

Lucius sighed and continued on his way, he stopped at Le Fay’s door, posed to knock when he realized the door was already ajar. He glanced back down the hallway and chuckled before entering the room and closing the door behind him. “I see the children paid you a visit,” Lucius said.

Ambrosius stepped out of the shadows, stretching out his wings across the room and let out a yawn. Lucius chuckled even more, “I hope you didn’t give them too much of a fright with that appearance,” he said.

Ambrosius smiled, “Only Harry spotted me, your son will be mental scar free,” he joked.

“Good, I’m sure he would have actually screamed when he saw you. Harry, well he’s far more interested in figuring things out to be terrified of them,” Lucius said, “So, I’m guessing you were planning on taking a late night flight, care if I join you?” he asked.

Ambrosius folded his wings for a moment, carefully pulling at a piece of flaky skin, “I guess I wouldn’t mind the company, though, I’m unsure how you plan to achieve it,” he said back to the window and looked out. 

Lucius smirked, “Actually, I had a surprise to show you. I planned on showing you after the holidays, but now works,” he said. Lucius closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated on what he wanted, he felt the change slowly until he heard a faint laughter. When he opened his eyes and tilted his head he let out hoot. 

“A barn owl? Lucius, you shouldn’t have,” Ambrosius teased, earning him a rather unfriendly screech from Lucius. Ambrosius chuckled and then went to pick up the bird, cradling it in his arms as he apprated the two of them to the roof of the house. He cast quick notice me not charms and a poor invisibility charm on the two of them before stretching out his own thirteen foot wingspan. “You ready Lucius?” Ambrosius asked the bird. Lucius nodded and then took off, rising into the night sky and then glancing behind him as he watched the golden man stretch out his webbed wings and then lift himself from the roof.

It was quite a sight to see, Lucius noted, as he watched the rippling back muscles pull and tug on the man’s massive wings. He honestly hadn’t seen Ambrosius use them before, but it was bloody gorgeous, and quite the turn on. They flew like this for a while, with Lucius a bit ahead and below him so he didn’t get caught in Ambrosius’ wake. Thankfully both were set up for gliding so they hadn’t a need to stop at any real point. It had been about another hour before Lucius led them back to the house, landing softly on the roof and transforming back as he turned to watch Ambrosius land. He’d yet to see him in his true form, but just seeing him with this massive pair of wings was enough to make Lucius think twice about ever crossing him.

“Magnificent,” Lucius mumbled.

Ambrosius looked up from fixing his pants, and snorted, “What did you just say?” he asked with a grin.

Lucius blushed, “I, I-um. I was just commenting on your wings,” he stuttered, biting his lip as he turned away from Ambrosius, “I honestly thought they were just for show, but I guess their size really is to lift all that.”

“It’s not the only thing that has size,” Ambrosius teased.

Lucius choked for a second, “My Lord!”

“Oh don’t give me that Lucius. I have eyes, I can see the way you look at me when you think I’m not paying attention,” Ambrosius said before grabbing the man’s shoulder and apparating them back into his room. 

“I have a wife, I have responsibilities!” Lucius exclaimed after they’d landed, stepping away from Ambrosius quickly. 

Ambrosius let out a sigh and then shrugged, “Understandable, but if I’m not mistaken, you and Narcissa married out of duty, not love,” he said, lifting a brow at Lucius. He reached for a shirt as his wings faded and pulled themselves back into his back. He heard Lucius grimace behind him and couldn’t help the slight chuckle. “You’re never going to get over that are you?” he commented.

Lucius shook his head, “Definitely not, it just,” he paused, “Skin is not supposed to move like that.”

“Human skin isn’t,” Ambrosius corrected, “I’m not human, as you well know. Not any more human than a veela or a gargoyle.”

“I’m aware,” Lucius said, “As for me and Narcissa, you’re right, but I’m not just about to abandon my family for a-.” He stopped himself as Ambrosius turned around, and he could feel a small pang of guilt. 

“No, go on,” Ambrosius said, crossing his arms over his chest, “You were about to say a man, or was it a monster?” he growled.

Lucius inhaled sharply, “You are not a monster,” he said firmly and then stepped up to him, “But I also can’t be what you need. Not when I have a family of my own,” he said softly, lifting his hand to squeeze Ambrosius’ bicep.

Ambrosius looked down at the hand and then back at Lucius. He hadn’t wanted him before, but after that one off hand comment from Severus weeks ago, he couldn’t keep it out of his head. He licked his lips, “I understand,” he said quietly.

Lucius nodded and then pulled his hair to the side, “Now, we should get this over with before dinner,” Lucius said, but all the action did was make Ambrosius’ stomach sick.

“I think I’m actually good,” he said with a tight smile. Lucius looked up at him warily, eyeing the golden, freckled man.

“You sure?”

“Absolutely, I shouldn’t keep you from your family any longer,” he said, smiling so much that his eyes closed, he laughed a little and then started pushing Lucius towards the door. “I’ll be down once I’ve finished dressing.”

Lucius rolled his eyes and then nodded, “Be quick, I’m sure dinner will be done soon,” he said and then left.

Ambrosius stood there a good moment, staring at the door before collapsing onto the bed. He still felt sick, and his stomach grumbled unhappily. “I know, but I can’t. Not tonight,” he told himself as he looked down at his shaky hands. He let out a small, quick puff of air and then stood again, grabbing his clothes and pulling them on. Leaning and turning in front of the mirror he decided the blue and green robes would be just fine, and his black undershirt and slacks would keep him warm. Finally he lifted his hair, tying it back in a red bow before smiling at himself. Christmas had been his favorite time of the year, and he wasn’t about to let some odd circumstances ruin it.

Slipping his wand into its holder he headed downstairs where he was greeted by twinkling lights and laughter. He made his way into the dinning room where everyone was gathered, and smiled at the warmth the room gave him.

“Finally joining us Le Fay?” Narcissa said with a hesitant smile.

“Yes,” Ambrosius said with a smirk. He liked this Narcissa’s charm and sass. Soon everyone sat in their seats, with Sirius and Remus at either end of the table. The Malfoys sat on one side of the table, and the Gaunts and Ambrosius sat on the other side with Harry. 

“Well, we should get started, does anyone wish to say anything? I know not all of us follow the old ways here,” Sirius said, glancing around the table. No one said anything, and Ambrosius was too busy watching Harry to say anything. “Well then, let us eat and drink; to this coming new year!” Sirius cheered, “Let us hope this winter isn’t too long,” he added, and around the table most bowed their heads and said quietly, “Blessed be.”

Soon the table was full of laughter and exchanges of conversation. Even the Gaunts were enjoying themselves. Ambrosius on the other hand was a little worse for wear. The headache he’d gotten after his little fainting spell had only grown into a full migraine. He engaged where he could, but he ate little and only picked at his food for the most part.

“So, Le Fay, Minerva tells us you’ll be changing some of the classes at Hogwarts?”

Ambrosius looked up from his food, “Oh, yes. I’ve noticed a few classes that have disappeared over the years, and that some of the classes currently taught, aren’t using the full curriculum. I plan on addressing the issue,” he paused and glanced at Harry and Draco, “Your Wizengamot has tried to outlaw quite a few classes over the years, some succeeding, however, I plan to have our school meet ICW standards. It barely meets it now, and it used to be much better. Currently we are very low in academics compared to the other countries. The OWLS and NEWTS wouldn’t even stand in other countries, you’d have to take them over again if you wanted any good jobs offered there. I’d say the only thing that hasn’t changed is the quality of our Masters, but that’s to be expected. I’m sure some will not agree with the classes I add, but this divide between Black and White magic is absurd,” he said, glancing at Lucius. He then turned his gaze to Sirius and Remus who did not look like they agreed. With a sigh he continued, “Magic is magic. The only good and evil there is, is in the way a wizard uses it. Initially the fabled unforgivables were used for medical purposes, dark curses used for exceptionally strong protection against those that would do harm,” he paused when it looked like Sirius was about to say something but Remus elbowed him, “I will agree that there are some distasteful magic out there, but they too at one point had a valuable use. Necromancy was once a powerful healing art till wizards twisted it into something between phases. Even then, an animated skeleton is just that, and animated skeleton,” he stopped when he started to get odd looks. He cleared his throat, “I’m rambling now, I apologize.”

“No, you’re right,” Sirius finally said, “Nowadays people just see it as such because of the monsters that have taken up that magic as their own.”

Remus nodded, “To many people that have become uneducated out of fear,” he said, thinking about himself and how he’d come to terms with his own curse.

“I will appreciate any support you’d offer during my time at Hogwarts,” Ambrosius said with a smile. That when his migraine started to even get worse and he swayed a bit, “While I have had a lovely dinner, I think I should retire,” he said as he stood from his chair.

Sirius nodded, noticing the man looked a little ill. “If there is anything we can do, don’t hesitate to ask. I’m sure a man your age needs a bit more TLC,” Sirius smirked.

Ambrosius couldn’t help but laugh, “Ah, I see the jokes run in the family,” he grinned. He then nodded to each of them and headed back up to his room, one hand on the railing or the wall for most of the way. This whole aversion to feeding on Lucius these past few weeks had really gotten to him it would seem. He let out a long sigh as he opened the door to his rooms, and then let it shut behind him with the wave of his hand. 

He glanced about the room, and then smiled warmly at the letter he’d been writing. He sat down at the vanity and picked up the quill he’d been using, finishing the letter with a quick signature and a bit of wax as he sealed it. He grabbed the box he’d managed to get as a gift and then shrunk it down to a size Salana could take. With that he bound them together and called out for his feathered friend. 

She appeared within seconds’ flaming into existence with her vibrant blue flames. She stood on the vanity beside him, careful not to let her massive claw damage the wood. _‘You called father?’_ she chirped, nipping at his hair and preening it. 

“Yes, I’d like you to take this Severus Snape. It’s his Christmas gift. Hopefully the dungeon bat will like it as a peace offering,” Ambrosius said, scooting the letter and shrunken box over to the caladrius. She bobbed her head and took the letter and box in her talons before rising in the air and flaming away. He honestly loved that bird, just as much as he’d loved the woman that had raised her. He loved them all like his children; Salana, Tordenfugl, Nathair, and Fawkes. All of them. Though, he had yet to find Nathair or Fawkes, and he honestly wasn’t surprised. Those two were just as independent as those that had raised them; that being Salazar and Godric respectively. He wondered where they’d gone off to all these years, but it wasn’t as though he missed them. Or, perhaps he did. Salana had been the one protecting him all these years, and Tordenfugl had gathered a family in his absence. He could only guess that the other two had made lives of their own as well. 

He stood and stepped to the window, and he was delighted to see snow falling from the sky. He grimaced as pain flashed through his body, and he could feel himself falling. He closed his eyes as the pain hit him again, and a flurry of white crossed into his vision.

 _‘Ambr, Ambr! I can’t believe you just did that! Are you alright?’_ Ambrosius recognized that as Rowena’s voice.

 _‘I told you hanging up those lights on the roof with the snow there was a bad idea.’_ Ahh, that was Helga. She was always on him about doing stupid things. _‘Godric, why didn’t you stop him!’_

_‘I thought Sal was on it.’_

_‘I was not, help me get all the snow off him. Godric, here, take this.’_

_Amrbosius could hear the snow being pulled off him, and then the shovel hit his arm and he shouted. He felt arms reach for him and he was pulled from the snow. He shook his head, smirking at all the worried looks. ‘I’m fine, just a bit bruised.’_

_‘Oh Ambr, what would we ever do without you,’ Godric said with a solid laugh._

Then everything turned into fire, and Ambrosius felt like he was burning from the inside out. He felt a scream roll in his throat, and then a mechanical laughter. Voldemort, he recognized that laugh anywhere. “Oh Harry,” Voldemort snickered, “Poor, poor Harry. Everyone’s dead, and it’s all YOUR fault,” the dark laughter continued even as he heard screams calling for him. 

Ambrosius snapped awake, eyes darting around the room as he sat up sharply. He frowned, glancing around the room. How’d he get off the floor? He questioned to himself as he looked down at the sheets covering him. Salana was back, and she was perched above him, cooing up a storm as she pecked at and preened at his hair. Well, no one else was in the room, so he guessed it must have been Salana. “Thanks,” he told the blue-grey bird, rubbing her head as he laid his head down on the pillow. 

It would seem that, even if he didn’t want to remember, he’d have to at some point or another. 

“Guess I’ll have to be brave and face my past, isn’t that right Severus,” he said, thinking about the man leaning over him just before he came to live in this world.


	11. Christmas Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christmas!

Christmas morning was an early morning. Le Fay could honestly say it was too early. He glared from his seat on the love seat as he sipped his morning tea.

“Why can’t we open them now?” Harry whined.

“Because, food comes first,” Narcissa said as she set the table.

“But it will take too long,” he continued.

Narcissa sighed, rolling her eyes, “You and Draco,” she muttered, “Breakfast is almost finished, why don’t you go bother one of the other adults,” she said and then shooed him out of the kitchen.

Harry grumbled and looked around the room. The Gaunts had left after dinner last night, having other family members to spend time with, so all that was left was his fathers, currently snuggling together on the couch and reading, Lucius, helping Narcissa in the kitchen, and Le Fay. He tilted his head slightly at the man drinking his tea and flashed back to the night before when he’d seen him with those leathery bat wings covering him in the shadows of the upstairs room. It had spoked him then, and honestly still spooked him, but he was also curious. The theory Draco had seemed like it was closer and closer to being the truth, and those eyes. 

Harry made his way over and then sat down on the ground in front of Le Fay. “What happened to your eyes?” he finally asked, pointing to his own hidden behind a pair of corrective lenses. Sirius said he’d only need them for a few more years before the magic in them corrected his eyes permanently. 

Ambrosius snorted around his cup and then set it back down on its saucer. “Nothing happened to them, I was born like this,” he said simply, blinking down at his younger self.

“Then are you blind? How do you get around?” 

Ambrosius’ eyebrow lifted, he never remembered being this boldly curious before. Curious yes, but not so boldly curious as to ask personal questions like this on his own. This world really was quite different. “I can see just fine,” he paused, looking Harry up and down, “Though, it’s not exactly the way you would see the world,” he admitted. 

Harry looked curious, “What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, I don’t just see what reflects light like you and your father’s do. My eyes, as scary as they may be, also pick up magic,” he explained, “And a few other things, but it’s not anything as interesting as magic,” he added.

Remus looked up from the book he was reading, “So you can see magical auras?” he asked.

Ambrosius lifted his gaze from Harry to Remus, narrowing his eyes just slightly, “It’s more than just auras. I can see spells, or more specifically, signatures. Every person’s magic radiates at a different frequency, thus creating different colors,” he explained. It honestly had taken him some time to get used to, but he’d gotten the hang of it. Now he could tell most spells appart, and who cast them just by the color. 

Remus’ eyes widened a bit, “That's fascinating. I’ve only heard of people being able to dictate the kind of spell some cast. That ability must come in hand quite a lot,” he said.

Ambrosius shrugged and lifted his tea, “It's not completely accurate. A person’s color can change over time, or even with just very strong emotions. I don’t depend on it for much,” he admitted with a shrug. 

Remus seemed a bit disappointed and frowned before nodding, “That makes sense now that I think about it. Magic is a fickle thing. It constantly changes.”

Ambrosius nodded, and just as he did Narcissa’s voice chimed in that breakfast was done. With that Ambrosius rose, and stuck his hand out to Harry to help him up. Harry couldn’t help the bit of fear that leaked into his heart as the dead eyed man stood over him. Cautiously, he took the hand and let out a small eep as he was suddenly yanked to his feet with far more force than he’d expected. Another arm came down on his torso to steady him and he looked up at the man as he chuckled.

“Sorry Harry, didn’t mean to pull you up so fast,” Ambrosius said, looking down at him with a slightly worried expression but a smile spread over his lips. Harry stood frozen, his mind spinning for a couple seconds as his eyes locked with the dead off white eyes above him. There it was again, that loneliness, that envy he’d seen before. 

Without thinking he found himself wrapping his arms around the man, hugging him tight. Ambrosius stood frozen for a moment, blinking in confusion before letting out the quietest sigh that only Harry heard. He wrapped his arms back around Harry and squeezed him back lightly, “Can’t hide anything from you can I?” he whispered as he looked down at Harry.

Harry looked back up at him with a smile, “Nope,” he said with a giggle.

Ambrosius chuckled and then ushered Harry towards the door to the kitchen. He followed behind with a slight smile and shake of his head. Sirius and Remus watched, and Remus had to put a hand out to stop Sirius for a moment before the Black relaxed. Remus lowered his arm and then smiled at his husband. “Perhaps, Lucius is right,” Sirius said quietly as he watched Ambrosius laugh at something Harry said, causing Draco to look at them both quizzically.

“While I understand why you don’t trust him,” Lupin said, “You can see the way Harry treats him, and the way he treats Harry right?”

Sirius nodded, “To be honest,” he said quietly so only Remus could hear him, “He reminds me of James,” he paused to look over at Remus, “The way he holds himself, the way he interacts with Harry even though he’s only just met him. It’s almost exactly like how James used to treat him before they died.”

Remus nodded softly, understanding then that it wasn’t just him. “Seeing that, do you trust him now?”

Sirius snorted and started towards the kitchen, “Hardly, if anything, it makes me more cautious,” he grunted as his eyes hardened. Remus frowned hard, and then followed him into the kitchen. 

***

Breakfast was uneventful, a bit of conversation but nothing more. The real fun started when it got to the gift opening after. Laughter filled the sitting room as the gifts were exchanged, most of them being for Draco and Harry of course. 

“An invisibility cloak?” Remus whispered to Sirius as Harry opened the package.

Sirius nodded, “It was James’ it only felt right that he gets it the same year his father did,” he replied. Remus grumbled but didn’t say anything more.

“Wow!” Harry said as he finished pulling out the cloak, spinning it and then pulling it over his body. When he vanished, everyone took a collective gasp. 

“Sirius!” Lucius said rather loudly, “You still had that thing after all this time?”

Harry started looking between the adults, “Wait, what?”

Remus chuckled as the adults started bickering, “It was your father’s. Sirius has been wanting to give it to you for a while now. It's an invisibility cloak, very rare so take good care of it,” Remus said.

“That cloak is incredibly dangerous!” Narcissa said, cutting through the other bickering between Lucius and Sirius. 

Ambrosius cleared his throat and the bickering stopped, “I’m sure Harry will be very mature about the cloak’s usage,” he said and then looked down at Harry, “Won’t you Harry?”

Harry suddenly nodded very quickly, “Of course! I won’t break any rules, promise!” he said.

“See! He promised!” Sirius said. Narcissa glared at the two men and then huffed and looked down at Harry and Draco.

“Fine, but I still don’t see why you thought it was a good idea,” she grumbled.

Ambrosius smirked, “Family heirlooms are very important,” he said, eyeing Narcissa and causing her to blush a little bit.

“Of course,” she stuttered, and then turned her head away, “I just think Sirius should have waited another year or too, when Harry’s more mature to use it wisely.”

Harry turned on his toosh, “I’ll be good, pinky promise!” Harry said, looking up at her.

Narcissa sighed and then reached out her own pinky to his, “Fine, since it’s a pinky promise,” she said with a smile.

Ambrosius fixed his seating and then started to pull something from his robes, “Speaking of heirlooms,” he said as he pulled out a box, “I’d like Harry to have this, but I can understand it you want to take a look at it first,” he said, passing the box over to Sirius. It was a small ornate box with what looked like pearls embedded in it. Sirius opened the box gently with a curious look that widened into surprise. In it was a pendant shaped as a sword, with rubies glittering in the pommel of the sword. He was more interested in the oddly shaped clasp attaching the pendant to the golden chain necklace. 

Sirius shrugged, “It looks fine enough,” he said taking the necklace out of the box. 

Ambrosius smirked, “I would wait to see the whole thing,” he stated as Sirius held up the necklace.

“What do you mean?” Sirius said.

Ambrosius motioned for the necklace and then held it in the palm of his hand, “Godric,” he said quietly, and suddenly the pendant was full size in his hand with the gold chain looking like a simple string hanging from the end of it. Both Sirius and Remus gasped. Ambrosius chuckled, “It was Godrics, I’m sure you’ve heard of his sword he had forged by the goblins.”

“That's so cool!” Draco shouted, looking at the silver sword and it’s gold handle decorated with rubies. 

“You can’t be serious!” Narcissa almost screamed, an invisibility cloak was one thing, but a full sword! “Sirius!”

Sirius inhaled and then looked over at Remus, “I mean, it's another heirloom,” he said with a shrug. Remus groaned. “It shrinks Remus, it's not like he’ll be carrying a full length sword around with him everywhere!” Remus just groaned louder. 

Ambrosius looked down at Harry who was just staring at the sword in awe. “If it makes you feel any better, I hadn’t expected to give it to him at his age. But I heard about what happened at school,” he started to trail off and gave Sirius a knowing look. 

“Know about what?” Narcissa asked, and Lucius grimaced.

“You didn’t tell her?” Remus asked, surprised.

“Tell me what Lu?” she turned to her very guilty looking husband, “Lucius?” she growled.

“Harry and some others were attacked by something during a detention,” Sirius said in a gravelly voice. Narcissa paled.

“With the world like it is now,” Ambrosius started as he spoke the key word again and the sword was back to its shrunken size, “I’d feel safer with him having it now then later. It also contains a few protection charms so it has a use even as a pendant,” he explained. He then looked back at Sirius, “Well?”

Sirius gulped and then nodded, “Go ahead.”

Narcissa looked like she wanted to say something but didn’t as Harry stood and walked over to Le Fay. He then turned so that Le Fay could put the necklace around his neck and clasp it together at the back. When he lifted his hand to touch the sword it felt warm against his skin. He turned back to Le Fay then and gave a rather formal bow, “I’ll make sure I take good care of it Lord Le Fay,” he said with a rather serious face.

Ambrosius was pleasantly surprised and then gave Harry a nod, “I trust you’ll be responsible with both it and the cloak?” he asked.

Harry nodded, “Absolutely,” he said firmly, and then went to go sit with Draco and the other presents. 

Narcissa leaned into her husband and whispered, “What attacked them, do they know?” she asked Lucius.

Lucius shook his head as he watched the boys play with the new toys, “No.” 

“Ah, I’ve also forgotten!” Ambrosius said rather loudly, “Bakaby!” he hooted. The elder house elf appeared with a big smile.

“Master is ready?” he asked happily.

Ambrosius nodded and then Bakaby vanished. Everyone was looking around, wondering what could possibly be next. Suddenly presents appeared in everyone’s lap, Narcissa actually jumped a little when two landed in hers. Ambrosius smiled, “I couldn’t not get gifts for everyone,” he said, smiling just a bit.

Sirius was surprised, but he was learning to expect many surprises when it came to Lord Le Fay. He opened the wrapping slowly, and was both surprised, and pleased at what he found. “This is amazing quality!” He said as he lifted the dragon hide jacket.

“It has a warming and a cooling charm as well,” Ambrosius said, “And it will be very resistant to any scratches or nicks,” he added.

Sirius smiled and then pulled the jacket on and he felt it squeeze just a bit as it formed to his body. “How did you know I rode?” he asked Ambrosius. Ambrosius simply smirked and shrugged. Sirius rolled his eyes and then looked over as Remus finished unwrapping his gift. He frowned, not understanding it at first, and honestly being a little offended when he saw the whole thing. Remus on the other hand looked like he was about to explode.

“You didn’t,” he whispered. 

Ambrosius smiled, “I did. Those are hard to come by, and even harder to find correctly done. I asked a friend to test them first, and got the all clear from him and his mate.”

Remus shakily picked up the simple looking silver metal collar. He felt Sirius stiffen beside him but he laid his hand on Sirius’ thigh and squeezed it as tears formed in his eyes. Sirius seemed to soften then, but looked worried. 

“I sadly could find anything that looked better-”

Remus shook his head, “No, no, it’s fine. I know how hard these are to make and have them work. I understand completely,” he quickly cut in.

“Lu?” Sirius questioned softly.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said and then pulled out a matching wring, taking Sirius' hand and slipping it onto his middle finger. He then lifted the collar and put it on, feeling it click into place and then it faded, forming a light black tattoo like ring around his neck. The same occurred around Sirius’ finger. Sirius looked a bit worried but waiting until Lupin collected himself enough to speak. He looked over at Sirius with gratitude overflowing his eyes, “With these, I don’t have to take the wolfbane potions anymore. It connects both of us so you can communicate with me when I change during the full moon, and gives me full control of the transformation. I’ll keep my own consciousness!” he said. He looked back at Ambrosius, “I don’t know how I can ever thank you!” he said.

Ambrosius shook his head, “You’re family. You don’t have to do anything.”

With that Remus leaned on Sirius, snuggling into his side as he felt the tears in his eyes start to spill over. Sirius looked over at Le Fay and mouthed a quiet thank you. 

Next was Narcissa, as she opened the gifts, her eyes lit up. One was a book on muggle psychology, and the other was the most up to date book on mind healing within the wizarding community. “Are you sure you don’t want me to try anything?” Narcissa asked, thinking back to their conversation a few days ago about Ambrosius memory problems.

Ambrosius nodded, “I’m sure. Though, I have decided to address the issue instead of, how were you going to put it? Running away from the past?” he said with a slight devilish grin. 

Narcissa blushed a little, “I see. Well, that’s good then. I’m glad you will at least be trying something. It’s not healthy to keep ignoring something, even if it’s painful.” Ambrosius nodded in agreement.

Next was Draco and he was already rapidly pulling away the paper. He let out a loud hoot of excitement when he finished. “Yes! Mom, mom, look!” he said standing up and running to her, though he ran rather carefully till he got over to her. Her eyes went wide when she saw what was nestled in a small container within her son’s hand. In a small glass container, small holes lining the sides of it, was a perfect tiny version of an Antipodean Opaleye. “It’s so cool!”

Narcissa almost fainted, “Please tell me that one doesn’t unshrink!” she said, glancing up at Ambrosius.

Ambrosius smiled and chuckled, “No, no, it doesn’t. Well, it will get a bit bigger but not as big as the dragon cousin it looks like. It’s just a Pseudo Dragon, so it will only get to be around the size of a cat. They make very good pets,” he said, “And they are trainable unlike their full size cousins, and can even learn to speak.”

Narcissa was wary of the creature now staring at her, but Draco looked so pleased with himself. “You know it will be completely your responsibility correct?” she said, eyeing her son. Draco nodded and then held the cage to his chest.

“I know!” he said with a smile.

Narcissa sighed and then glanced at her husband, who was smiling. “You knew about this didn’t you,” she grumbled.

Lucius put his hands behind his head, “I did, and I honestly did try to convince Le Fay to do something else but he was very persistent. Besides, he needs a good pet. An owl for school is one thing, but a Malfoy needs a real companion,” he said with a smirk.

“Well, I think that’s everything I had to give out,” Ambrosius said, standing and stretching. “While I would like to stay longer, I must be getting back to my Hogwarts.”

Sirius stood, nodding and then leaning in to hug Ambrosius. He hadn’t been expecting it but he didn’t not like it.

“I wish you could stay longer,” Remus said, “But I understand you have all those new duties now,” he added.

Ambrosius nodded, “Yes, and more adjustments to make,” he glanced down at the two boys, “I expect to see you too within a couple more days. You two better be ready for school again.”

Harry smiled, “We will be!”

Draco nodded, “Of course. A Malfoy should be ready for everything!”

Ambrosius chuckled, if only he had their energy.


	12. Return to Hogwarts & Opening Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry, Draco and the rest of the gang return to Hogwarts. Harry thinks Le Fay may be more than what they bargained for.
> 
> Ambrosius helps fill in some of Severus' missing memory and in turn, opens the reincarnated Harry's heart.

The days flew by far faster than Harry and Draco had ever expected, soon enough they were walking back into Hogwarts with a new plan of action. Harry had gone over what he’d overheard his Fathers talking about with Draco, both agreeing that Le Fay might be playing a far larger part in all of this then they’d initially thought. Even larger than Draco’s theory that Le Fay was the Uthareal, especially after what Harry had found in Slytherin’s diary. They walked together, chatting about their next meeting with Hermione, Neville, and Ron as they headed to the main hall where everyone was told to gather after getting off the train. Of course, they already knew why, but Harry was curious on how the rest of the school would take the news. He had told Hermione and Ron, but he hadn’t talked to Neville as much. He wondered what the wizard would think after the news broke. 

The two sat down at the Slytherin’s table, waving at the others as they passed. Harry glanced around the room and noticed McGonagall at the top of the rise that led to the staff table. She stood stiffly with Le Fay standing a bit farther back behind her. Slowly the room quieted and McGonagall lifted her wand to her throat, clearing it to draw everyone’s attention. “I would like to welcome back everyone from the holiday break, I hope everyone had a grand time,” she said with a tight smile, the room roared for a moment and Harry could see the smile on her face become a bit more natural, “Good. Now, I’m sure there were a few rumors already, but I would like you all to meet your new Headmaster, Lord Le Fay. He will be taking over the Headmaster position for the foreseeable future,” she turned her head to Le Fay and then stepped back as he stepped forward. 

“Thank you Professor McGonagall,” he said as he stepped up, looking over the whole room. Honestly, he felt a bit overwhelmed, but here (as headmaster) he’d at least have more of a chance to protect everyone here. Here he could at least prepare them better than he’d been in his past life. He needn’t lift his wand to his throat as McGonagall did as he spoke, his voice echoing from the walls as Hogwarts leant him her magic. “Welcome back students, as McGonagall said, I will be taking over as Headmaster of Hogwarts. I hope to serve you all and Hogwarts to the best of my ability. That being said there are some rules I would like to go over, as well as a few changes. These will happen gradually so as not to disturb your studies, and letters to your families have already gone out to inform them of these same changes,” he paused to glance around the room and the curious and confused faces, “First, there will be a change to the core classes taught her at Hogwarts, these will be added gradually to help with workload. The core classes are now as follows; Astronomy, Charms, Elemental Magics, Defensive Magics, Herbology, Potions, Transfiguration, History of Magic, Muggle and Wizarding Bloodline Studies and Magical Theory. The electives and extracurricular activities will retain the same classes as they would normally, “ he paused at some of the collective gasps and sighs at some of the titles of the new classes, “Are there any questions before we move on?” he asked as his dead eyes glassed the room. A few hands rose and Ambrosius waved for the first to speak.

“What happened to Defense Against the Dark Arts?” the Hufflepuff questioned.

Ambrosius held back his snort, “There is no such thing as the Dark Arts, and thus the class has been renamed aptly back to its original name, Defensive Magics, to fall more in line with ICW standards,” he declared, watching the Hufflepuff flush red and hurriedly sit down. Ambrosius sighed quietly as he waved for the next student to rise and speak, he wasn’t too surprised when it was Draco.

“Sir, I have a question about one of the core classes, Elemental Magics, isn’t it labeled under the Dark Art’s act as an illegal magic?” Draco was curious, but he also remembered what his father had said about staying away from that kind of magic. 

Le Fay was honestly a bit surprised, he hadn’t expected Draco to know about Elemental Magics, but his father was Lucius after all. “While it is labeled as an illegal magic under the Britainish Wizengamot it is not seen as such around the rest of the world. Here at Hogwarts we will be following ICW standards. As long as you are on school grounds, the study of Elemental Magics will be permitted, and letters will go home with you during breaks and the summer to allow study of the subject outside of school grounds,” he explained, standing just a hair straighter as Draco sat. He glanced around the room again, watching as the last student stood to ask their question. It was another Slytherin, though this one looked rather displeased. 

“Why is Muggle Studies becoming a core class?” the Slytherin said with a sneer.

Ambrosius’ eyes narrowed, “It’s come to my attention that many students here don’t know anything about the outside world, especially that of the muggle realm. As such I will be pairing Muggle Studies with Wizarding Bloodline studies, as it has also come to my attention that most here don’t even understand their own family history,” he stopped as the Slytherin started to look confused. With a sigh and a small roll of his eyes he continued, “Each wizarding family can be traced back to one of the founding wizarding lines, or the Sacred Twenty-Eight as you all call them now. Muggleborns can also be traced back through to these lines.”

The Slytherin frowned, “But Muggleborns and Half-Bloods come from Muggles,” he said, obviously still confused.

Ambrosius’ frown deepened just a bit, “Muggleborn’s and Half-blood are just as connected to ‘Pureblood’ lines as a Pureblood is. Most Muggleborns come from magic passed down the lines of squibs, and lost lines most deem extinct,” he paused as the Slytherin’s face turned into one of surprise, he motioned for the student to sit before he continued, glancing around the room and realize that all eyes were now firmly attached to him. “Everyone here in this room, has some form of ancestry with the founding lines of magic, be it a British Bloodline, or another from some other country. I recommended everyone study their lineage, and even take an inheritance test, done by the goblins, of this summer break. You may all be surprised about what you learn from your ancestry,” he paused at the looks of wonder and awe on quite a few faces, especially the first years, “Those that may have trouble with funds for the tests may also visit my office during the year to talk over funding, just remember to bring your parents as well,” he said with a final note. “Now, anyone else?” he asked. No one raised a hand which made him smile rather proudly.

“Now, moving on, some of your core classes will change in formatting, as some of the curriculum that was missing are being supplemented back in. I can understand this may become frustrating for some, especially your families and letters have also gone out specifying these changes,” he waved his hand and scrolls started to appear before the students, “I’ve also listed them on these scrolls so you will all be prepared for anything that has changed, any items you need that are listed here will be paid for by Hogwarts. Now, on top of these changes I would like to go over the ground rules you all should be following her at Hogwarts,” he paused to let the students refocus from the scrolls onto him, “These rules will be posted in depth in every common room, as well as the main hall for any who wish to go over them again in depth. I will not be going over any of the code of conduct or uniform rules here and now, those are found in each of your common rooms, and on your entrance letters. Now going over the main rules and addressing any changes; curfew will now be 9pm for first years and 10pm for anyone beyond, this will of course be acquitted for Prefects during their nightly patrols, uniforms will be worn at all times between the hours of 6am and 6pm unless noted otherwise for events and/or holidays, the Forbidden Forest and Black Lake will continue to be off limits unless accompanied by a professor for school class activities, magic in the halls and the library are also prohibited, and any duels must be observed by at least one teacher. Any other magic used outside of your studies is strictly prohibited and will be dealt with by your heads of house as they see fit. Are there any questions?” he asked as he finished going over the rules, he had tweaked a few here and there, more so to hopefully curb any curious behavior from his younger self, and to keep more students safe. He’d rather have them doing something under supervision than sneaking out to do it themselves on their own. McGonagall stepped forward and whispered in his ear, and he gave a light nod. “The Third Floor will also remain closed to students unless escorted by a Professor,” he added, glancing around the room and finding his eyes falling onto his younger self. 

He watched Harry for a long moment till his younger self looked up, turning his eyes from him quickly, but not quite quick enough for Harry not to notice. “Now,” Le Fay said with a wide smile, “Let’s all have a grand rest of the year!” he said, and with that food filled the tables and the students cheered. Ambrosius let out a small groan as he turned back to the staff table and made his way to his new seat. He glanced at the rest of the staff as they made conversation, a tiny pang of envy hitting his chest as he looked around at all the joy and happiness surrounding him. Shrugging it off he started to dig into his food, wondering now about his next step in his plan to deal with the two dark lords, and how to keep his younger self out of trouble.

***

Harry was glancing over the scroll, fascinated by the changes Lord, well now Headmaster Le Fay, had made to the classes. He glanced over at Draco who was already digging into his food. Though, he couldn’t help but think some of it was slightly suspicious. Going against the Wizengamot? That was pretty risky even with what Harry had gleaned from his understanding of where Lord Le Fay stood in all of this. What could he be planning, and after what he’d seen in Regulus’ old room; could Le Fay even be trusted? Speaking of which, he’d been holding off on telling Draco that bit of information, and it was weighing on him. He didn’t know if he should tell Draco and the others what he saw or if he should keep it to himself. The voice he’d heard, that he could only guess had been Le Fay’s, did tell him to stay silent but something like this was important information right? The man had wings after all! Big leathery bat wings. 

Harry let out a small sigh that drew Draco’s attention from his food, “What the matter?” Draco asked.

Harry winced, “I was thinking about the stuff we found out, about the stone, the founder, and that theory you have about Le Fay,” he answered honestly. 

“We’ll talk about it with Hermione, Ron, and Neville tomorrow in the library. Luna might even be there as well,” Draco stated. 

Harry perked up a bit, “Luna’s going to be there. Why?” he asked curiously.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you, Hermione was talking to Luna over the break, and it seems Luna might know one of the languages the journals are written in. Seems it’s something to do with old druid languages like parseltongue,” Draco explained. 

“Old Druid languages?” Harry asked.

Draco nodded, “I think we’ll learn about them during part of the Elemental Magic, they are super old languages used by the old ways. Lucius started talking about them lately, and that parseltongue was one of them.”

Harry nibbled on his lip, “Interesting,” he said aloud, lifting his head to gaze up at the staff table. He watched as Headmaster Le Fay rose from his seat, gazed a glance around the room and left. He seemed worried about something, or maybe he was just really tired? It was always curious how he moved, Harry always thought he looked so graceful, but also unsettling. Like he was always stalking something. 

He was drawn by movement from the table as a few other teachers rose, one of them being Severus who seemed to follow after Le Fay. Odd, he noted to himself. 

“We should get going too,” Draco said, motioning around to the other tables, “It’s getting late and everyone's headed back to their dorms for the night. We should go too,” he added. Harry nodded and finished his plate before rising and grabbing his things. He’d have to wait to talk about his worries with the others until after classes the next day. Maybe they’d be able to piece more of this together then and figure out what they were going to do about the stone.

***

Ambrosius made his way back to his rooms, his head pounding. It would seem the holidays and putting together the new classes had taken more out of him then he’d planned, and Lucius was out for the time being. He honestly hadn’t seen him since Christmas. His stomach growled uncomfortably, grumbling its protest about the type of food he’d consumed at the dinner. That and the fact he hadn’t fed in so long was really throwing him for a loop. He sighed, leaning against the wall for a moment as he felt the tremors start, he closed his eyes, waiting for them to pass when he heard footsteps behind him. Quickly he drew in a breath and stood straight again, starting to walk again when he suddenly heard his name being called from behind him.

“Lord Le Fay, a moment of your time please,” Severus said.

Ambrosius froze, why did it have to be him of all people right now. He turned, closing his arms across his chest and into the arms of his robes to hide the shaking of his hands. “Yes, Professor Snape? What did you need?” he asked. 

Snape seemed to pause when addressed with such formality, and it made Ambrosius smirk just a bit. 

“I wanted to talk to you about the change in classes,” Severus said, rather coldy.

Amrbosius’ brow rose, “Oh? What about them?” he asked, curious. He hadn’t pegged Severus as the one to come with him about grievances about the classes.

“For the two added classes, who do you plan on having them taught by?” Severus asked. 

Le Fay smiled, so he was curious on how he was planning on pulling this off then? Ambrosius chuckled, “Worried Professor Snape?” he asked with a grin.

Severus sneered, “No,” he said flatly.

“For Muggle and Wizarding Bloodlines Studies, Charity Burbage will continue to teach the class. I’ve also instructed an old friend to help her supplement in areas that she may be missing when it comes to the Bloodlines. Constantine Vosmus, though, you may find him less appealing than I, he will also be taking over teaching History of Magic. Cuthbert will supplement anything Constantine misses, but he will be taking over most of the work of teaching. Our Ghostly professor doesn’t draw the attention of the students enough and leaves out some major developments of our magical history when it comes to the modern times,” he paused to lick his lips, “As for Elemental Magics,” he glanced at Severus who stiffened, “Mansi Selpie, she’s a graduate from a school in Greenland if I’m not mistaken. It’s small, but I’ve looked over her style of teaching and invited her to take the position.”

That seemed to put Severus at ease based on the loosening of his shoulders that Ambrosius caught notice of. “What do you mean by ‘I may find him less appealing’,” Severus questioned nervously. 

Ambrosius clicked his tongue, “Constantine is a half-vampire, and Mansi is well, she’s part veela if I’m not mistaken,” he said, nonchalantly. He watched as Severus' face paled and then grew into something resembling anger, but it seemed he was trying hard to hide it.

“You’ve brought creatures in to teach?” Severus said through his sneer.

“Would you say the same about Filius?” Ambrosius shot back.

“That’s different,” Severus started to argue.

“It is not,” Ambrosius said with a growing power in his voice, boosted by the sudden disgust building under the surface of his words. He honestly couldn’t believe Severus was like this, this was not the man he remembered. But then again, how much did he really know about Severus in his old timeline. “These are people, just like any other,” he paused as sudden realization dawned on him. He hadn’t noticed the smell before, it was so minute that he hadn’t caught it before. “What are you so afraid of Severus?” he finally asked. 

***

Severus froze, no, he wasn’t afraid, why would he be. What was Le Fay talking about? He looked at the bronze freckled man’s face, realizing that his new headmaster was serious. “I’m not afraid,” Severus snarled, but he heard a small quiver in his voice. Confused, he took a step back, shaking his head, “I’m not,” he said again but his voice just shook more. His head started to ache a bit, like he should be remembering something but he wasn’t. Ambrosius seemed to catch on because Severus suddenly felt a hand land on his shoulder.

“It’s okay Severus, let's head to my quarters and we can talk there,” Ambrosius said quietly. The way Le Fay spoke made Severus feel like the older man knew something about Severus that he didn’t even know, and it made him feel very uneasy.

“Sure,” he drawled, following the man down the hall and towards the headmaster’s office. They walked in but didn’t stop there as Ambrosius led them into his sitting room off the office, waving his hand as tea started to appear and pour itself into glasses for the both of them. He motioned for Severus to sit, and sit he did, taking the warm tea into his hands and sipping it gently. He set it down and watched as Ambrosius sat across from him in the chair he’d used during their last talk about Lucius. 

“I think it’s about time that you were told, Lucius and I have been keeping something from you for a while now,” Ambrosius said, those dead eyes scouring Severus and making him feel a little overly self conscious of his current appearance. 

“Oh?” he managed to say, eyeing the man across from him, that in all respect was not really a man.

“Lucius really should be the one to tell you this,” Ambrosius said with a sigh, glancing at the fire with what Severus would almost describe as a longing look. “But, you need to know, and it's partly my fault that you don’t remember,” he added. 

Severus didn’t like the tone this was taking but continued listening anyways.

“During one of your years at Hogwarts you become rather ill, having to stay in the infirmary for quite a while based on what Lucius said. But the reason for you being there is a cover up for what really happened,” Ambrosius said.

Severus paled, “You’re talking about that stunt those marauders pulled, aren’t you.”

Ambrosius nodded, a bit surprised, “So, you remember what happened?” he asked.

Severus shook his head, “I remember going out to the tree, doing what they said to do, and then a sudden feeling of dread and pain, but the rest of it’s very foggy,” he explained.

Ambrosius sipped his drink, “That's probably due to the deal Lucius made.”

“What deal?” Severus started to growl.

“We’ve already discussed it, just not in great detail. The one Lucius saved from a werewolf attack during his time at Hogwart’s was you,” Ambrosius said. Severus’ eyes went wide, and images suddenly started to flood his mind. 

***

“The one that Lucius saved from a werewolf attack during his time at Hogwart’s, was you,” Ambrosius said carefully, watching the Potion’s Master’s eyes widen. Severus lifted a hand to his head, shaking slightly. Le Fay could hear the man’s breathing quicken, and his heart start to race. He wanted to explain more but he also didn’t want to overwhelm Severus either. 

“Why didn’t he, why can’t I…” Severus trailed off as he started to rub at his temples.

Ambrosius watched closely, ready to act if Severus needed a calming draught. “That was part of the deal he made to save your life during that time. Your memories of the event, and some of Lucius blood. Saving you was much like what happened with Potter, he had to use my blood to do it, so it took more for what was given. Healing you, and preventing you from contacting the werewolf curse,” Le Fay explained, sipping at his tea slowly, but still keeping an eye on the man across from him.

Severus’ hands fell to his lap and firsted his pant legs. 

“With what happened to Charles adding on top of it, your brain seems to have subconsciously become afraid of creatures like werewolves and vampires, which is to be expected. Even if your memory fades, your body still remembers what that kind of pain feels like,” Ambrosius paused, “Which, is always why I believe you’re scared when you don't necessarily think you're scared, and why you aren’t very trusting when something like those ‘dark creatures’ comes up,” he added as he stood, stepped over to the fireplace and kneeling down to add more wood. He could have kept it magically burning but it just didn’t feel the same as when he did it like this.

There was a lull of silence as Ambrosius tended to the fire.

“I guess I should thank you,” Severus finally said, oh so quietly that Ambrosius didn’t even realize he had said anything at first.

“What for?” he asked, dead eyes following the flames as he chose where to place the next log.

“For saving me, and for telling me when Lucius wouldn’t,” Severus said.

Ambrosius shrugged, “I was a statue, I didn’t have much choice in the matter. Though, I hadn’t planned on telling you, till Lucius told me exactly which friend he’d saved.”

“Oh?” Severus questioned curiously, “And why did that make a difference?” he asked.

Le Fay stayed squatting in front of the fire, letting his eyes drift closed as the memories of his past life as Harry Potter drifted by. He let out a long sigh, opening them as the pain in his heart grew. The regret. He’d honestly never known it before dying, least not as Harry Potter, and now he knew it as two people, not just one. 

He took in a deep shaky breath, “I told you I reincarnated yes?” he said as he stood and turned back to face Severus, leaning his back against the fireplace. Severus nodded, looking at Ambrosius with what the man could only describe as curiosity. “Well, in that life in between this one, I met a man quite like you. A teacher, and protector like no other. He helped me in many ways in that lifetime, more ways that I honestly ever understood at the time, but when it came down to it I was never able to form a real bond with him. He did it all because he’d given my mother a vow to protect me, and yet I never got to know anything about him. He gave up his life for me, and in the end I did the same, without ever being able to express my gratitude to him,” he paused, looking Severus up and down as the man continued to stare at him with a confused look on his face. Ambrosius smiled sadly, “When I learned who you were, the similarities were too great for me to ignore. Not telling you about what happened in your past felt like I was betraying that man you reminded me so much of, so that’s what ended up spurring my decision.” He stopped watching Severus' face turn into a bit of a frown, though Ambrosius wasn’t sure why. It almost looked like he wanted to know more but didn’t want to pry. Though, it wouldn’t matter, Le Fay couldn’t tell him if he wanted to.

“Though,” Le Fay said as he stepped back to his seat and reached for his tea cup, “I couldn’t decide on when to tell you, then in the hall when I noticed your fear, it seemed as good of a time as any. It would get what I needed to say off my chest, and help you understand why you were afraid without knowing why.” He tipped the cup back and took another sip before setting it to the side. 

He watched as Severus downed the rest of the tea, and then glanced about the room. “This man, you said he was like me?” Severus asked curiously.

Ambrosius lifted his head, tilting it just to the side, “In many ways, why?” 

Severus shook his head, “The way you talk about him,” Severus paused, and Ambrosius watched him warily. 

Did Severus pick up on something Ambrosius had said? Did he say too much? 

“It sounds like you cared for him very much, I had someone like that once. I was just thinking, if I met someone just like them it would be hard for me to talk to them,” he stopped and met Ambrosius’ dead eyes, “I guess what I’m trying to ask is, is talking to me awkward, or difficult because of this man I remind you of?” he asked cautiously. 

Ambrosius felt his chest tighten more than it already had, his breath was pulled from him and he felt the tears well up being his eyes, he turned his head, looking off into the fire instead of trying to hold Severus’ gaze. 

***

Severus felt his own heart break just a bit at the sudden look of pain that flooded across Ambr’s face. He was sure the man hadn’t meant to let it show, but even he could see the pain the man was holding back, even if he had changed his gaze to the fire. This man, this being, Severus could only guess at what he’d been through, having memories of two lives? It must be so confusing, but Severus knew that look probably much better than anyone else.

“It isn’t just the regret of not being able to tell him how thankful you were is it?” Severus said quietly, his eyes flicking to Ambrosius’ hands as he watched them start to form a death grip the chair. His whole body stiffened. “You loved him, didn’t you?” Severus asked quietly. 

***

Ambrosius, Harry, felt the life rush from him, he closed his eyes tight and felt the tears run down his face. He hadn’t admitted it to himself but Severus was right, he had loved him. In that moment he’d rushed forward to save Severus in his past life he’d felt something, and now comparing that feeling to when this self lost the Founders, his mates, he had to admit it. Then and there, probably as soon as he’d pieced it all together, he’d loved Severus. 

“It doesn’t matter now,” he snapped, angrily as he lifted his arm to wipe at his dead eyes. “Even if I did, it wouldn’t have mattered,” he said quieter, the anger seeping from him.

He heard Severus stirr, but didn’t dare look at the Potion’s Master. Yes, he told himself, it didn’t matter. Even if he’d survived saving that Severus he was or had been his teacher. There was no way that love could have been returned, and the pain he felt now, the ache he felt anytime he looked at this timeline’s Severus, he had to remind himself that this wasn’t his Severus. This man knew nothing of his pain, or what that Severus had gone through with him.

“I apologize, I shouldn’t have pried,” Professor Snape said softly, standing. Ambrosius could hear him take a step closer, and then rethink his approach and stepped back. The floor creaked as Severus turned and headed for the door, pausing at the threshold. “Thank you for the Christmas gift Lord Le Fay,” Severus said from the doorway, “And, if it means anything, no one protects someone so valiantly unless they care for that person. I’m sure the man you speak of knew that as well,” he said before walking through the door and pulling it closed behind him. 

Ambrosius continued to sit in silence for a long moment, the tears flooding down his face now. This might end up being a lot harder to deal with then he’d thought. Everyone was so different in this timeline, so different. Yet so similar. 

He lifted a hand to his chest and let out a long sigh as he stood, heading to the double pan windows. Without thinking he opened them, shedding his clothes, and then shedding his human skin as well. Stepping out through the window he leapt into the air in all his Uthareal glory with Salana flying out behind him. Together they both took to the sky, and Ambrosius tried to forget the conversation he’d had. 


	13. The Storm Arrives Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The 'kids' come to terms with what they've read and choose to tell Headmaster Le Fay what they've found.
> 
> Lucius comes to terms with his feelings, and then helps Ambrosius remember why he hates the word.

Everyone was gathered in the room Hermione and Neville had found, after their discussion in the library Luna had suggested going back to the room. Everyone had been pretty against it at first but Luna was pretty quick to point out that it could have just been peeves messing with them, and that any ghosts in Hogwarts shouldn’t be allowed to harm them anyways. The only thing they’d really have to worry about would be if they were caught by one of the teachers or a Prefect, which, as long as they paid attention to the time, shouldn’t happen. Now they all sat around the table they had originally found the journals on with a fire going in the fireplace thanks to Hermione.

“So, the languages, Luna, you said you had an idea based on Old Druid languages right?” Hermione asked. Luna nodded.

“Salazar’s is obviously in parseltongue, thanks to Harry, but I’m guessing the others must be in similar languages. I decided to look back at the old crest for some possible answers. I heard Le Fay talk about it when he first came to Hogwarts. The Runespoor is Salazar, which makes sense as to why parseltongue is the language his journal is written in. It looks like Rowena is represented by a Roc, so if we look at her journal,” Luna said, taking the journal from Hermione and flipping it open to the first couple pages. She frowned for a moment before waving her hand across the page the letters glowed for a moment before Luna started to smile, “There, translated. It seems it was in uovotongue,” she said with a sly smile. Hermione gazed at her in awe.

“Bloody hell is uovotongue?,” Ron said.

Luna let out a small sigh, “It’s a language used specifically with large bird species. Thunderbirds, Rocs, the like. They use it to communicate across species. It’s not really words, more like sounds made exclusively through use of a beak, which is what makes it so confusing,” she explained. Ron shook his head and then plopped it down onto the desk, sighing loudly.

“What about Helga’s?” 

Luna grabbed the notebook and flopped it open, studying the language for a moment before tilting her head. “Well, her’s was an Eastern Griffin, so it should be in uovotongue as well, but it looks like it might be a different dialect of it. Give me a moment,” she said as she flipped through a few more pages, the others stayed silent, watching as words glowed every once in a while until the whole book glowed and words started to form into something they could read. “There we go,” she said with a smile, “I was right, it was just in a separate dialect of uovotongue.” She handed the two journals over to the respective people. Ron took Helga’s and Hermione took Rowena’s. “Now that should just leave Godric’s. His is a Nemean lion, so by respective languages it should be feliustongue, or cat language,” she said, holding her hand over the book’s pages. Slowly it glowed and the words transformed just like the other books. 

Neville took the book with a shy smile and started flipping through the pages. “Wow, Luna, these translation spells are magnificent. How did you get so good at them?” he asked.

Luna shrugged and said softly in an almost wispy way, “My father is pretty experimentive like my mother was, but he likes studying the old ways, especially the druids. To help he had me learn a lot of translation and reinvigorating magic to help with his studies.”

There was a collective aah of understanding from around the table as they started to read the journal in more depth. Thankfully it was the weekend and they had all the time they needed to read through most of the journals. Hours later as the room started to feel more and more apressive the group put down the journals and looked around at the others in the room. 

“The last couple entries..” Hermione said quietly, a sadness digging into her voice, “Did you all?”

“Yea.”

“It’s in all of them,” Ron said. He even seemed to have become pale just from reading the journals.

“What do you think happened to them after-,” Neville was cut off by Draco.

“They died Neville, that’s what happened,” he said roughly, almost snapping as he stood from his seat sharply and turned away from the group. “I knew we shouldn’t have read these,” he said, lifting his hand to his chest in hopes to quiet his rapid heart. 

“Le Fay, “ Harry said slowly, lifting his hand to his chest and clutching his shirt, shaking his head. 

“It really wasn’t just rumors,” Ron said quietly, closing Helga’s journal.

“Yea,” Hermione said as she closed Rowena’s, “They loved each other all the way up to the end, I can’t believe people could be so cruel,” she added as tears started to spill down her cheeks. Luna put her arm around Hermione and hugged her close, laying her head on Hermione’s shoulder.

“What they did to them, just for who they loved,” Neville trailed off, shivering in disgust and fear. 

Draco turned, setting his jaw in a fierce look till his eyes fell on Harry, and his façade broke. Harry was pale, ragged and aged. He looked like he was about to be sick and his eyes were already so red that it looked like he’d been bawling for hours. “Draco, Le Fay, you were right but…,” Harry couldn’t finish the sentence as he felt the nausea waves start to hit him. Draco hugged him close, rubbing his back as Harry started to cry loudly.

The others looked at him, a bit confused, but also understanding as they too had read the journal and knew about the last year of horrors held between those pages. “Mate, it’s all right, this was like hundreds of years ago,” Ron said, trying to be helpful.

Draco shook his head, about to say something when Harry sat up, taking his face out of his dear friend’s chest. “Ron, you don’t understand. Le Fay, he’s my family, him and Salazar, they are my grandparents. Knowing now what they went through, what Le Fay had to have witnessed,” he paused as he rubbed at his eyes, “Hearing what my family went through,” he coughed, and sneezed, trying to clear his sinuses from crying. 

“It’s devastating,” Hermione finally said as she glanced over at Ron, “Just think, how would it feel to suddenly find out that your grandparents were about to be burned at the stake just because they loved each other, just because of who they were rather than anything they did. That’s what Harry’s feeling right now,” Hermione explained. 

That seemed to get through to Ron because he was suddenly at Harry’s side, hugging him tightly. “We promise, if anyone of us ends up in something like that, we’ll fight tooth and nail for each other,” Ron said fiercely. Everyone nodded with him and Harry could help the small hopeful smile that spread across his lips. 

“We should give these to him,” Neville said softly, glancing around between the other students, “It’s probably one of the few things he has left of them,” he added, glancing down at the journal. So many personal thoughts, and they’d all read them. He felt kind of gross having read them, but these helped answer so many questions. 

“I’ll take them to him,” he finally said quietly, “Do you all mind if I show him this place as well?” he asked them.

“Of course you can, this was obviously like their personal quarters together, he should see this. From what you’ve written in your letters it sounds like this could be something that would jog some memories for him,” Hermione stated.

“That might not be a great idea,” Draco said, “I overheard my father talking about how weak Le Fay gets when he gets a memory back, something like this might be too much for him to handle by himself,” Draco explained. 

Harry sighed, “Do you think your father can help then?” he asked.

Draco winced but nodding, “I think he’ll do it.”

“What about the stone?” Hermione asked.

“Learning what we have now, I think we should tell Le Fay rather than try to do something about it ourselves,” Ron said.

“I second that idea,” Neville said, Luna nodded her agreement as well.

“If anyone can help defend against the dark lords it will be Le Fay,” Hermione said in agreement.

Harry nodded then, “Okay, well, I’ll try to have a meeting set up with Le Fay, and I’ll tell him about everything. Draco, you’ll get your dad to help right?” 

Draco seemed to hesitate before nodding slowly, “Yea, I should be able to do it,” he said finally.

“We should all head back to the dorms, get some actual studying done, let me know if any of you need any extra notes on anything,” Hermione said as she gathered her stuff together. Everyone else followed suit and then piled out onto the hall, glancing around to make sure no one saw them leave their secret room. They said their goodbyes and then headed to their respective houses.

Harry was putting all the journals in his bag when he really realized how uncomfortable Draco had started to act since bringing up his father. He caught up to Draco and swung the bag of books back onto his back. “Hey, are you okay?” Harry asked.

Draco looked up, startled for a moment before shaking his head, “Yea, I’m fine, it’s just,” he paused and licked his lips, “I don’t understand how I’m supposed to feel about all this,” he said. “My father, Le Fay, it’s so confusing. My relationship with my mother and father was already bad enough and now I know about all this past stuff with Le Fay, my feelings are so confused,” he said, trying to explain but only seeming to get more frustrated as he spoke. Once they were back in the dorms and sitting down on the couch in the door room their conversation continued.

“Did you talk to your parents yet?” Harry asked.

Draco shook his head, “No, after Christmas it seemed too weird, and they started acting like everything was okay again. I didn’t want to push it, but,” he stopped and then reached into Harry’s bag, pulling out the journals and bringing Rowena’s to the front. “Reading their thoughts, made me realize that I could be what’s getting in the way.”

Harry frowned, “What do you mean?” 

“Well, Rowena had a child before meeting Le Fay, and she was having a tough time deciding to leave her old family behind to be with him and the rest of the founders. It made me think, what if that’s what’s happening between my father and Le Fay. What if the reason he and mom are so distant lately is because of me?” Draco stated, running his hand over the journal cover, “I’ve talked about it before with you but, while my mother and father do care for each other, they only married out of duty and respect for their families. Not because they fell in love. And while my father does seem to be terrified of Le Fay every time he opens another letter, he also seems oddly obsessed and excited when he gets them. It’s odd seeing him that way, and I can tell it's also weighing on Mother,” he stopped and then slipped the journal back into Harry’s bag and then sighed, “I don’t want to be the thing that holds my father back from actually finding someone he connects with like the Founder’s connected with each other, and no matter how much I dislike Le Fay right now, I don’t want him to miss out on finding that spark again either. I just don’t know what to do about it, especially with what you're asking about getting my father to be there with Le Fay when we show him the room,” Draco explained. 

Harry nodded slowly, starting to piece together how Draco must be feeling as he spoke. “It sounds like you should letter your parent’s and ask them to come to Hogwart’s for a meeting with you,” he said, holding Draco’s hand a bit tighter.

“Yea, but what do I write in the letter?” Draco asked.

Harry titled his head, if it was Sirius and Remus, what would he do? “Just be honest I guess, tell them you want to talk about your mental health. It's technically the truth, and they’ll probably be more inclined to talk to you about it if you phrase it that way,” Harry finally decided.

Draco’s frown twitched, turning into just the beginnings of a smile. “Yea, yea, I think that’ll work. It's important enough that they’ll both have to come, and just vague enough for me to probably start the conversation when they finally get here,” Draco said, nodding his head. “Yea, let’s go get started on it right now,” he said as he hopped up and headed up the short staircase to their rooms. Harry followed, glad they had figured something out from Draco after all. 

***

Days later some time during the week.

“Okay Dragon, me and your father are here, Headmaster Le Fay gave us a room to talk in as well if you need it,” Narcissa said as she looked down at her son. When she’d gotten the letter she had been a bit worried, but seeing him now, he seemed fine. She glanced at her husband who just shrugged. 

“Actually,” Draco said, “I was hoping we could go have lunch down by the lake while we talk, I have a bit of free time and it’s warm enough today to sit outside for a while,” he suggested.

Narcissa nodded, “Very well, but I’m casting a warming charm on all three of us, I don’t want to chance one of getting too cold while we are out,” she said just as she waved her arm.

Draco smiled and nodded before grabbing the things he’d already put together. They headed out and wandered down the trail till Draco put down the blanket he’d cared with, throwing down some sticky charms into the grass to keep the blanket in place. He dropped the basket he had the snacks in and then sat down on the blanket, followed closely behind by his parents. Together they sat in silence, eating a few of the snacks before Draco finally looked at both his parents in the eye. Sucking in a breath he blurted out, “I know about Le Fay, and I know why you two have been acting so weird lately.”

Lucius almost choked on the sandwich he had been munching on, shooting Narcissa a guilty look. Narcissa’s brows rose for a moment, and she silently appraised her son’s behavior before choosing her next words. “You know about Le Fay?” she questioned quietly.

Draco nodded, and then pulled out Rowena’s journal, he set it down on the blanket, holding up his hand and whispering the translation spell over the cover so that his parents could read it. “At first, I was really conflicted when dad started acting weird, especially when it was anything about Lord Le Fay. I didn’t know how to feel about it, I felt like he was taking away my dad at first, and ruining my parents relationship,” he paused as he watched the concern grow on his parent’s faces. “That was until me and my friends found the Founder’s journals, reading Rowena’s and hearing from her the struggle she had between her family and the other founders really made me think about what was happening,” he stopped and held up the journal for a moment before setting it down again, “I think I understand now what you two are trying to do for me, and while I appreciate it, I also don’t want to be the one that stops you two from being happy,” he said. 

Both his parents stared at him for a long moment in silence before Lucius started to speak, 

“Draco, we, your mother and I-”

“No, Lucius. Draco is right,” Narcissa said with a sigh, reaching over for her husband's hand and squeezing it, “And, I’ve decided I don’t want to be the one to come between you and someone you love a second time,” she said, rather sternly. Lucius was stunned into silence, looking both guilty and unsure of just what was happening. “We’ll stay married for now as a formality, least until Draco is a bit older, but,” she paused to look back at her son and smiled warmly at him, “It would seem even our son can see what being with Le Fay does to you,” she said.

“Is it that obvious?” Lucius said, with a tight smile.

Draco giggled, “Oh yea,” he said with a smile.

Lucius sighed, closing his eyes for a moment before opening his arm and smiling at them both. Draco crawled over into his father’s lap as Narcissa leaned in and he hugged them both tightly. “I’m worried about how this will affect both of you,” he said as he hugged them.

Draco smiled, “We’ll be fine, you’re still family, even if you are with someone else. It will take me some time to get used to, but it’s not like Le Fay is some stranger, especially not after reading the founder’s journals.” 

Lucius wasn’t about to ask what Draco meant, least not right at this moment at, “Are you sure about this Narcissa?” he asked quietly.

Narcissa nodded, “Draco’s right, and pretending like this is just making it harder. I care for you deeply enough that I want to see you happy, and I don’t want to be the reason you let it pass you by. Me and Draco can take care of ourselves, you’ve done your duty and supported me during some of the toughest times in my life, now let me do that for you in return,” she said with a sad but supportive smile. Lucius hugged his family a bit tighter and let out a long sigh.

“Thank you. Thank you for understanding,” he said softly, causing Narcissa and Draco to both hug him back tighter than they already were. 

“So this means I’ll have two dads like Harry does at some point right?” Draco said jokingly, causing his father to pale a bit.

“I don’t know if we are that close just yet,” Lucius said, though, his voice did shudder a moment as he spoke. Narcissa grinned and chuckled quietly.

“Don’t pressure your father or Le Fay too hard,” she said, then reached over for the journal Draco had been mentioning. She flipped it open a few pages, and started frowning. “Who’s did you say this was?” she asked.

Draco looked up from his place snuggled up in Lucius’ lap, “It was Rowena’s, the Ravenclaw founder of Hogwarts, journal. It’s actually another part of why I wanted to talk to you two today, specifically father,” he said, watching his mother flip through another few pages, “I’d be careful reading it, me and the others regret reading most of it.”

“Why is that?” Lucius asked as he watched the frown on his wife’s face deepen. 

“Because,” Draco said, tightening his grip on his father’s shirt, “What the rumors said were true, Le Fay was with them, until the very end,” he added, his grip tightening even more before he buried his face into his father’s robes. Worried he had Narcissa hand him the book, flipping to the last entry. He visibly paled as he read the last entry, his stomach turning horribly, “You read this?” he asked Draco.

Draco nodded into his father’s chest, “I read Salazar’s too, but I couldn’t bring myself to read the others, but, based off the other’s reactions it was all the same,” he said, starting to sniffle.

Lucius could see the question on Narcissa face and shook his head, simply handing the journal over to her so she could read the last entry. Lucius could see the moment she found it, her face became white and tears started to well in her eyes. She lifted her hands to her face to cover her mouth, but her eyes were still fixed on the text in her lap. “Le Fay,” she said softly, her lips trembling. 

Lucius put his arm back around her and pulled her in tight, “Shhh, it’s alright,” he said softly, though in his mind he knew it wasn’t. He couldn’t help his mind painting the picture. 

The four founders in cells, writing down their last words into these journals only to be dragged out some time before sunset, brought before each other and tied to posts pilled with wood. Forced to watch each other be burned alive, and Le Fay. He shook his head, pulling his family in closer and kissing them both their foreheads. He couldn’t imagine it; someone as strong as Le Fay, forced to watch his only family burn away in front of him like that. The more he tried the more sick he felt.

They stayed like this for a long moment before Draco started to stir, “Papa,” he said quietly.

Lucius looked down at him, “Yes?”

“You promise nothing like that will happen to you, right?” he asked. Lucius hugged him closer and squeezed him tighter. 

“I promise,” he said softly.

***

Ambrosius was surprised when Lucius asked to speak with him privately. He was sure the man knew he was welcome into Hogwarts to see him at any time. That was until the day he came in with young Harry and Draco in tow. Frowning at his desk he looked down at the two students before glancing back to Lucius. “What’s this about Lucius?” he asked, a small scowl forming across his face.

“Actually, these two would like to speak with you, I’m just here for support later on,” he said, “Especially since I haven’t seen you since the holidays,” he added.

Ambrosius sighed and then gestured for the students to sit in the wooden chairs across from him. Lucius chose to stand behind the two, leaning his arm on Draco’s seat. Le Fay looked over the two students who had their heads down, rather interested by the ground. He did however spot some odd looking books stacked in Harry’s lap. Suddenly Harry was standing with his head bowed and the books in his arms as he set them on the desk in a rush. 

“We are very sorry for prying sir!” Harry blurted out. “We were just curious and-.”

Harry was cut off rather abruptly by Ambrosius when he saw the top book on the stack. His hand was already around the book as he lifted it up and growled in a rather inhuman voice, **“Where did you find these?”**

The boys stiffened, and Lucius suddenly felt very vulnerable, but he had to keep these two safe. He cleared his throat rather loudly to draw the Headmaster’s attention, freezing for a moment as those off-white dead eyes turned to him. It was like his blood had frozen as he looked into those eyes. His mouth was suddenly dry and it was hard to swallow but he managed to push through, “The boys and their friends seem to have stumbled upon a secret room, were they found these on a desk inside,” Lucius said, trying to keep his voice even but finding it fairly difficult as those eye bore into him with a savageness only akin to one you’d find in a nundu. After being close with Le Fay for the last couple months he could sense when the Uthareal was upset, and this was beyond upset. He was honestly surprised he was keeping it together as well as he seemed to be. That was until he glanced at Le Fay’s other hand and saw that he’d crushed a good chunk of the desk. “They are both very apologetic as they didn’t know what it all was at first, once they realized what these meant they came directly to me, they’d also like to show you the room,” Lucius said.

Ambrosius glanced down the books before glancing between the boys, “Did they read them?” he asked, eerily calm, almost too calm.

“Yes, we all read them,” Harry piped up, chancing a glance up at the headmaster only to freeze when his eyes met Ambrosius’. It was like staring into a void with death himself on the other side staring back at him. Harry tried to back away only to find the back of the chair blocking him. Even though he could feel the terror oozing down his back, it wasn’t just that. It was the look of pain and utter betrayal that was covering Ambrosius’ face and it was directed directly at him and no one else. 

“And why didn’t you advise me or one of the other teachers about this?” Le Fay asked, biting down on the inside of his lip to try and trim back some of his anger and frustration he was feeling. He saw Harry twitch a bit and growled, “And speak truthfully, I’ll be able to tell if you're lying,” he growled.

Lucius watched the exchange, gripping the back of Harry’s chair as he tried to stay strong for the boys against the overwhelming amount of pressure being given off by Ambrosius right now. Harry looked so afraid, but he couldn’t do anything for him, not unless Ambrosius did something against the two all he could hope for was that the boys remained honest as they had been with him and Narcissa.

“We thought it had something to do with what attacked me in the woods, and then we saw the drawing in Salazar’s journal of the Uthareal,” Harry paused, “It’s after the stone Fluffy’s guarding on the third floor,” he said, finishing quickly. 

Ambrosius leaned back in his seat and let out a long sigh, eyeing Harry carefully, he knew the boy was holding back something, and he turned to Draco and found the boy doing everything he could to avoid his gaze. “I’m guessing that’s not the only thing you managed to piece together,” he said, still finding it difficult to reign in his emotions but he reminded himself that these were children. “Draco,” he said slowly, “I believe you're also leaving something out that you neglected to tell your father.”

This time it was Lucius’ turn to scowl, glaring down at his son, “Dragon..”

“We know!” Draco shouted.

Harry’s head shot up, eyes slightly wide. He hadn’t told Draco what he’d figured out about Le Fay yet, what could he be talking about. Unless, he figured it out too?

“Know what?” Le Fay said slowly, glancing up at Lucius.

“Harry figured it out first, I’m sure, but, from the journals,” Draco paused and licked his lips nervously, “We know you’re the Uthareal that saved Harry in the Forbidden Forest, and that you have something to do with the death of Harry’s parents.”

The room was silent for a long moment as Lucius looked down at the two boys, he was honestly surprised they had pieced this much together by themselves. They had help from the journal’s obviously but, piecing together Le Fay’s involvement with Harry’s parents’ deaths? Of course he was also furious at the two, they had gone so far behind their parents backs by doing all of this. 

“Who else knows?” Ambrosius said quietly.

Harry cleared his throat, “Neville, Hermione, Ron, and Luna. But they only know what was contained in the journals. They know you’re the Uthareal that saved me but that’s it,” he answered. 

Ambrosius lifted his hand to the bridge of his nose and pinched it slowly, letting out a long sigh. “You two wait in the hall, I need to speak to Lord Malfoy alone.” The boys stood quickly, bowed and then hurried out of the Headmasters office and back down the stairs. Thus, leaving Lucius and Ambrosius in the room alone.

“My Lord-.”

“Lucius, don’t,” Ambrosius said, closing his eyes slowly, “I would take it that you have read the journals as well.”

Lucius couldn’t help the nervous swallow before he spoke, “Only Rowena’s.”

Ambrosius inhaled slowly, trying to calm his nerves, “The last entry, when did she write it?” he asked. 

Lucius’ eyes widened just a hair when he realized why Ambrosius was asking. He didn’t know what was written in these diaries. He didn’t remember, or better yet, didn’t want to remember. “Are you sure you want to know?” Lucius asked cautiously. Ambrosius hesitated and nodded. “The last entry is dated and written as the day before they were executed,” he stopped when he saw Ambrosius’ free hand grip the arm of his chair, crushing it in his hand, “The boys tell me it's the same in the others. Each last entry is almost identical,” Lucius continued, a deep worried frown forming on his face. Lucius stood still as the moments of silence dragged on till finally Ambrosius seemed to have gained back some of his composure.

“Bring your son and the Black boy back in, I need to speak to them about their friends,” Le Fay said. Lucius nodded, stepping out to call them back in, only this time the whole group came in. Ambrosius looked at them all blankly, it seemed as though he’d expected them to all be out there waiting as well. “I am disappointed in all of you. Not only did you not tell any adult about your discoveries, but also put yourself in danger by digging around in places you shouldn’t have,” Ambrosius stopped a moment to eye each individual student there, “All six of you will have detentions with Professor Snape for the remainder of the year, and there will be fifty points deducted from each of your houses,” he paused to let it sink in, watching each of their faces fall for a long moment before taking a deep inhale, “I do not want you six to view these as strictly punishments,” he said slowly, “I understand why you all did this, but that does not make it excusable. That being said,” he stopped again, “I am impressed by your abilities, and I hope you use those detentions as time to strengthen those talents, as I will instruct Professor Snape to focus on as well. Now,” he stopped to look up at Lucius who simply nodded, “You are to tell no one about what you learned about me, no one. Is that clear?” he growled.

The six of them nodded quickly, though they didn’t lift their heads to look at their Headmaster.

“I said, is that clear?” he snapped. Lucius twitched, causing Ambrosius’ attention to flash to him. He could see it then that Ambrosius was using all his control to keep his emotions in check right now.

“Yes, we promise!” they all said in unison. 

“I think we should send the students back to their dorms, Harry and Draco has already informed me of where this secret room is and escort you there myself,” Lucius said quickly, his hand gripping his cane and ready to pull his wand if need be to protect the children. Ambrosius seemed to notice this subconscious movement and nodded.

“I suppose so, you are dismissed, and do not let me or any of the other teachers catch you doing something like this again,” he growled, “And Potter,” he added as the boy was about to excite last behind his friends, “I am disappointed in you the most. I’d hoped you would have trusted me enough to at least come to ask me face to face. I’m most perturbed by the fact you went behind my back like this. I hope the faith I put in you at Christmas was not misplaced.”

Harry paused for a moment, looking back at Headmaster Le Fay and finding only that look of utter betrayal on his face again. It broke the young pre-teen’s heart. “I’m sorry,” he managed to mumble before exiting the room.

“Should we head to the room the kids were talking about?” Lucius said after the door closed, turning back to see Ambrosius already starting to stand.

“Lets,” Le Fay said coldly, brushing past Lucius as he went.

Soon enough they were stepping through the door that Hermione and Neville had found before Christmas, and Lucius was wide eyed and in awe as soon as they’d stepped into the room. Le Fay on the other hand, with the journals in hand, seemed like he couldn’t care less. By the way he strode into the room many would have thought he didn’t care at all. Lucius knew better though.

Quickly stepping after Ambrosius as they strode into the middle of the room Lucius reached out and snagged Le Fay’s arm, causing the man to turn rather violently around to face him. 

**“Do NOT touch me!”** Le Fay shouted, slapping Lucius’ arm away and causing the journals to fall from his own arms. Lucius pulled back sharply, but was quick to reach out again when Le Fay tried to step away again.

“No!” Lucius shouted back, causing Le Fay to pause for just a moment.

“Lucius..” Ambrosius warned through barred teeth. 

“No,” Lucius said a bit calmer this time. With that he pulled Le Fay towards him, wrapping his arms tight around the much older man. Le Fay stiffened, pulling away at first till Lucius’ hand reached up into Ambrosius’ hair and pressed his face down into his shoulder. “Shh, it’s okay,” Lucius spoke softly, bringing the man in flush with his own body. Slowly Ambrosius’ body relaxed and Lucius could feel the tears start to fall onto his shoulder. Lucius was unsure of how long they stood like this, but he could feel the overwhelming grief Ambrosius was caring as it slowly started to slip away. 

Finally, Lucius stepped away and bent to pick up the journals, handing them back to Ambrosius who took them gingerly. “Thank you Lucius,” he said softly, reaching his hand up to pat at his puffy eyes.

Lucius only nodded, “I’m always here, anything you need, I’m here,” he said softly, “So, what is this place?” he asked.

Ambrosius stepped to the table in front of the fireplace, laying the books out one at a time, letting his fingers caress across the covers in a loving motion. “This was our main quarters, a study and living area that branched off into our bedroom. My quarters were simply used as a guest room later on after we made our family official,” he said despair and regret hanging on each of his words.

“I read the last entry, but I don’t think I understand what caused it,” he stopped, sure Ambrosius understood what he was asking. 

Ambrosius shook his head, “Jealousy, misinformation,” he turned to the fireplace, “fear.”

“Fear of what?”

“Me,” Ambrosius said, his eyes flicking up to the crest chiseled into the wall above the fireplace, “When they found out what I was, the people revolted, the area was mostly muggles still, and thus still heavily involved in the way they viewed us,” he paused to let out a long sigh, “I don’t. I don’t want to talk about this.”

Lucius understood but he also knew Ambrosius had been avoiding this for too long. “I see your memories and feel your emotions when you bite me, correct?” Lucius questioned.

Ambrosius turned his head to look at Lucius, surprised and understanding written on his face. “Lucius I can’t-.”

“No,” Lucius said, coming around the table and reaching for Ambrosius’ hands and meeting his gaze with his own, “Let me do this. Let me help you through it,” he said. 

Ambrosius looked away, “I can’t, I don’t want to. It hurts Lucius, and you don’t even know everything yet,” he started to say.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“You’re family-.”

“You’re my family too,” Lucius said, reaching up his hand to Ambrosius’ face and causing the man's eyes to widen. Lucius tipped Ambrosius’ chin for an easier angle and then leaned in, letting his lips softly brush against the older man’s. Ambrosius tensed, and Lucius could feel him pull away for a moment before Lucius pressed forward, parting his own lips invitingly. With that motion Ambrosius leaned forward and kissed back, snaking his tongue into Lucius’ mouth and causing the blonde to moan loudly. They pulled apart and Lucius could see the confusion written across Ambrosius’ face.

“I thought Narcissa and you,” Ambrosius was stopped by a finger on his lips, irritated but waited for Lucius to speak.

“Narcissa and Draco have both given me their blessing, if anything there the ones hoping that this turns into something more than what it is,” he said.

Ambrosius lifted his hand to Lucius’ and then dipped Lucius’ finger into his mouth, sucking it for a moment before pulling it from his mouth and kissing the inside of Lucius’ wrist. “And what do you want?” Ambrosius asked, eyeing the blonde warily.

“I’m inclined to agree with them,” Lucius replied quickly, “I’ve always known how I’ve felt since our first meeting after you’d awoken. I just didn’t give myself the option till Narcissa convinced me to take the leap,” he said, “Now,” he added as he tilted his head, pulling away the hair from the side of his neck as well, “Let me help you.” Lucius could see the hesitation, but also the need in those off-white dead eyes it felt like eternity while they stared at each other before Ambrosius’ fangs flashed and Lucius was suddenly swimming in emotions. 

It felt different this time, the current of emotions and memories wasn’t as hazardous as it had been the last time Ambrosius had fed. Then he felt it, the fear, the absolute loathing he’d felt before. He swam his way towards it till he felt himself almost fall into the memory.

_‘For the crimes committed, you all shall burn, and burn again in hell!’_

_‘No!’ Ambrosius screamed, but he could do nothing. The chains rattled around him as he struggled against them like some caged animal. He struggled as his hair was yanked and his head was pulled up to the sky, tears of blood draining down his face. ‘Let them go! Please!’ he screamed again. Each one was brought out one at a time, paraded in front of the masses before being brought to their individual stakes. Ambrosius continued screaming, crying for anyone to stop this madness. He caught Salazar’s eyes and he could see the fear in his mate’s eyes, he could see it in all of their eyes, yet they still held so strong to their pride. They kept their heads high as the binds were tightened, and then the logs at their feet were set to flames._

_‘No, NOO!’ Ambrosius roared, ‘Someone, anyone, help them please!’_

Lucius could feel the raging emotion, the pain as Ambrosius pleaded with them. He could see it all through Ambrosius eyes, he could feel it. The chains digging into his skin, the magic even binding him into place. He could even feel the heat of the flames on his skin, and he could hear the screams of his lover’s mates.

_Rowena smiled just slightly at Ambrosius, her last words, ‘It’s not your fault,’ on her lips, and the others as well. The chains continued to rattle as Ambrosius fought them, fought so hard as he listened to their screams filling his ears. The fire was so hot. Then there was a creaking, and inhuman roar as Ambrosius finally broke free, curses flying from his lips faster than he could think, his form shifted and shredded till he was no more than a beast. But it was too late, his mates were already ash, and so his anger, his grief turned to the masses, and the fires joined his magic, burning anything and everything around them. His pain, their never ending fuel._

Lucius watched this go on for days, watched Ambrosius burn everything in his path, kill and maim anything that stood in front of him. Then it was all quiet again. 

_Ambrosius was standing naked against a rising sun, parts of his flesh burnt away, blood and soot covering from head to two as he stumbled his way back to his mates. Their ash corpses still held to the stakes. Even as he reached for them they fell away into piles at his feet._

Lucius stayed with the memory as it flashed forward to Ambrosius wandering till he was at the castle, where he collapsed and Lucius could feel the life leave Ambrosius in that moment. He was abruptly ripped from the memory and found himself being thrown to the ground. He could feel blood pouring down his shoulder and struggled to open his eyes. When he did manage to open them standing above his was a mighty steed. 

The room was suddenly freezing as he looked up at the equine, and the sunken boney face drove the fear into his heart. He started to crawl backwards slowly as the beak like structure snapped dangerously at him, and he watched as the muscles pulled against bone under dangerously taught skin. Lucius could feel himself shaking as the wings opened wide above him and the horn on the creatures head glinted dangerously in the firelight. But it all stopped when his eyes fell to the creatures’. Those dead eyes. Those lonely, painfilled dead eyes. Lucius would know those eyes anywhere.

“Ambrosius?” Lucius said cautiously. The animal snorted, shifting its weight on its feet before lowering its head to Lucius’ level. Lucius shivered as he sat up slowly, raising his shaky hand till it rested on the cheek of this undead beauty. The Uthareal blinked slowly, blowing out cool air from it’s nostrils as it leaned it’s head into Lucius’ touch. He winced slightly as the pressure pulled on his torn and bleeding shoulder, but he smiled weakly. “You’ve been through so much,” Lucius said softly, and the Uthareal snorted, a soft nickering like sound coming from its beaked mouth. “Yea, I know,” Lucius chuckled, he leaned forward and let his head rest against the Uthareal's letting out the breath he’d been holding. “I’m glad you trusted me,” Lucius said softly before lifting his head to look in the creatures eyes again, “You truly are gorgeous just like Severus said.”

The Uthareal snorted, causing Lucius to chuckle again. “You don’t give that man enough credit,” he said softly, stoking the animal's cheek. “Now, are you going to come back to me, or do you need more time like this?” As he spoke the Utharel closed its eyes and in a shimmer of black the animal that had been was replaced by a very naked Ambrosius on hand and knee in front of Lucius. Lucius blushed profusely, even more when Ambrosius lifted a hand to Lucius’ cheek and brushed across it with his thumb. 

“All you need is to say my name and I’ll come back to you,” Ambrosius said softly. 

Lucius chuckled, his blush flooding down the rest of his body from his face, “Of course my Lord,” Lucius said softly. 

“Say it,” Ambrosius whispered, “Say it then if you know it.”

Lucius’ eyes widened, and then softened when he saw the look in Ambrosius’ eyes. That look of insecurity, the look you gave someone you wanted to trust but you just needed that last push.

“A’bhais,” Lucius said softly, he watched as a shiver made its way down Ambrosius’ body and he could feel the magic forming and tightening around them, “Son of Death. My Lord.”


	14. Cute Sleepy Time Ambrosius

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleepy Ambrosius is both sexy and adorable.

Lucius felt the magic crash down around them and Lucius watched in fascination as a glowing band of symbols and words formed around Ambrosius forearm. Other bands that Lucius hadn’t noticed before started to glow as well before they stopped and then faded back into the mocha color of Ambrosius’ skin. “What was that?” Lucius asked.

Ambrosius lifted his opposite hand to stroke the skin where the bands had been, “That was the final step of the mating bond, the other rings belonged to the founders,” he said, sadly, but then he looked up at Lucius with a hopeful look in his eye. “You aren’t mad are you?” he asked quickly.

Lucius shook his head vigorously, “No, I’ve just never seen anything like that before,” he said. 

Ambrosius smiled, “I’m sure you haven’t, not everyone just finds out someone’s true name and uses it,” he chuckled.

Lucius blushed again, “Was that not what you wanted?”

“It was,” he said with an impish smile, “If you hadn’t said it or said something else, this wouldn’t have worked,” Ambrosius said as he went to stand, putting out his hand to help Lucius stand, even naked Ambrosius was more worried about tending to Lucius’ wound than covering himself.

“What do you mean?” Lucius asked.

Ambrosius held his hand over the wound and mumbled for a moment as the wound started to seal shut, “I’ve never told you directly what my true name was, for us to bond like this you’d have to know it,” he said.

“But, when you were feeding from me-”

“Nope, you finding my true name was all you,” he said as he laid his hand down on top of the wound and traced the scaring, “It’s one of the requirements of finding someone compatible with the other’s soul.” Ambrosius tilted his head slightly, blinking for a moment like he’d lost his train of thought before he flicked his attention back to Lucius’ face. “Just make sure you don’t use it around anyone else, I’m sure you know the three name rule,” he said suggestively.

Lucius nodded, “Your given name, obviously the one your parents give you and what people call you on a normal basis. Then, your name of power, usually something used in rituals or between close friends. Lastly, there's your true name,” Lucius said, flaunting his knowledge and causing Ambrosius to chuckle, “Though, if I remember correctly, your true name is something you want to keep secret only to yourself, isn’t it?”

Ambrosius nodded, sticking his hand out and suddenly having a robe appear in his hands that he quickly pulled over his body and tightened shut to cover his nudity. “Your given name isn’t all that important, it's something to call yourself or have others refer to you as. Your name of power is a name you find within yourself, similar to your true name, but is used mainly for rituals to imbue more power into a spell or ritual. It was also used to mark craftsmanship made by said person, or spells made by said person. Speaking it will alert the person using the name, but it has no power over that person,” he paused to make sure Lucius was following, though by the look on his face he already knew most of this. “Your true name is extremely powerful, using it can boost spells and rituals tenfold but it's also extremely dangerous. Because the true name is something that represents that beings expression, or is almost identical to it’s true nature it can give someone else complete power over that being. Which is why it’s so dangerous for someone to know or use, because if done improperly they could lose their very soul,” he paused to give Lucius a very serious glance, “Without power over one's own soul, they also have no attachment to their own magic.”

Lucius swallowed, “So, I could keep you from using magic by using your true name?” 

Ambrosius eyed him but nodded.

“Why would you ever tell anyone else? Why do I know it?” Lucius asked, remembering what Ambrosius had said about the fact he had learned Ambrosius’ true name on his own.

“It’s one of the requirements for me to form attachments. Something set down by my mother I believe. Basically, I’m too unstable by myself, so my mates are given my true name through Lady Magic’s will if they are deemed worthy, or in some cases, they learn how to listen for true names. Which is also what makes me vulnerable,” Ambrosius said as he stepped back over to the table, glossing over the journals there on the table. 

“So, someone could learn your name without you feeding on them? Or bonding with them enough to feed from them?” Lucius asked.

Ambrosius nodded, “Yes, and it's part of what caused the Founder’s to die,” he growled, “I only vaguely remember the man now, but he had been a close friend for years. He managed to learn my true name and used it to control me, causing me to wipe out a rather important family. My mate’s stopped him, but not in time to make any difference. That's when the muggles learned what I was and burned the others,” he said quietly. 

Lucius moved to stand behind Ambrosius, hesitant at first but then wrapped his arms around Ambrosius and pulled him close. “I promise you can trust me,” he said into Ambrosius’ ear. Ambrosius could help the small smile that formed at the corners of his lips.

“I know I can,” he said rather simply and leaned his head back. “I’m tired,” he said quietly.

Lucius chuckled, “I bet, do you want to sleep here or back at your quarters?” he asked. Ambrosius closed his eyes for a long moment and then opened them, taking in a deep breath, “Let’s go back. I don’t think I’m ready to stay here just yet,” he said then stopped, “Well, now that I think of it, I don’t think we have a choice,” he said, motioning to himself.

Lucius snickered, “I guess you're right, we’ll have to stay here at least till we find you some more suitable clothes. Though, why don’t you just summon some like you did with the robe?” 

“Too tired,” Ambrosius said with a yawn. Lucius nodded, that sounded about right. With that he set his hand down against Ambrosius’ lower back and walked them to the bedroom quarters. When he opened the door he was pretty impressed. The room was rather spacious, done in mostly green and natural foresty colors, and the bed was huge. 

“Are you sure?” Lucius asked.

Ambrosius let out a long sigh and made his way over to the bed, stopping at the post for the canopy and looked into the bed. Lucius could tell he was in pain, but couldn’t bring himself to say anything more. “I’ll be fine,” he said, looking back over his shoulder to Lucius, “As long as you’re here at least. I’ll be okay.”

Lucius nodded and then blushed again as Ambrosius let out a long yawn and pulled off his robe, throwing it to the side. He climbed up onto the bed, pulling the blankets back and then stopped as he turned to face Lucius, his skin glowing in the light of the candles that seemed to be the only light source in this room. Lucius swallowed thickly as Ambrosius lifted his arms to pull the tie out of his hair, letting the long dark locks fall down onto his shoulders and side. Those off-white dead eyes standing out hard against his freckled skin as they peered through his lashes. “Are you sure?” Ambrosius asked Lucius, a tiny impish grin on his lips.

Lucius’ eyes narrowed at the very obvious challenge. With that he started to undo his own robes and threw it onto a wooden chair and desk in the corner. He could see the small raise of Ambrosius’ bow and suddenly felt the heat of his blood running to his face again. Growling he went to his shirt next as he made his way to the bed, undoing the buttons and then throwing it off to the side as well. He was at the beds edge when it came down to his pants, and he was glowering down at Ambrosius as he slipped them down and stepped out of them, along with his undergarments. He slipped into the bed next to Ambrosius but pulled the blankets up over himself, his red face peeking out from under the blankets. 

“I never pegged you as the shy type,” Ambrosius said with a purring chuckle.

Lucius rolled his eyes, “And I didn’t peg you as the one that would want to sleep together on the first night.”

“Ouch,” Ambrosius said, acting like he was wounded, “Except this technically isn’t night one,” he added. 

“I don’t think I’d count the times you fed on me,” he stopped then and let out a sigh, “I guess there is the flight that I guess could count,” he said slowly causing Ambrosius to chuckle.

“It’s okay, I won’t push you to do anything you aren’t comfortable doing just yet,” Ambrosius stated as he laid the rest of his body down and then stuck his arm underneath Lucius’ head and neck. 

Lucius snorted, “Aren’t you a saint today.”

“Only today,” Ambrosius said with a yawn, his fangs flashing for a moment before he started to close his eyes. “Goodnight Lucius,” he said quietly. 

Lucius smiled softly, “Goodnight Ambrosius.”


End file.
